The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-27 00:00:00

TIIE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 27, 1864.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE,

BETTING AT MANCHESTER-FRIDAY.

There was a fair attendance at the Subscriptions Rooms
to-day, but the business done was limited. and confined ex-
elusively to the St. Lager. sto 2 was offered on the field,
and taken to £2OO about Blair Athol. In other respects
betting was unimportant. Closing prices :

ST. LEGER,
5 to 2 agst Blair Athol (taken and offered)
5 to 2 agst General Pcel (take 3to 1 freely)
12 to 1 agst Miner (wanted)
20 to 1 agst Ely (offered)
100 to 3 Knight of Snowdon (wanted)
100 to 3 agst Breeze (offered)
40 to 1 agst Master Richard (wanted)
50 b 1 agst Vanquisher (taken)
100 to 1 egst Calista colt (taken and wanted)

The Deterioration of Racehorses,

(From the Sporting Gazcite.)

Those who mourn over the past glories of British racers,
should at least take care to arm themselves at all points be-
fore they provoke retorts. In another column, we give a
narrative of the life and doings of Hambletonian, a horse
who was never fairly beaten; and as against whom, there-
fore, we may reasonably take the strongest ground as the
undoubted champion of his day. We doubt not that most
of our readers have imagined—first, that he ran over all
sorts of courses during a long and punishing career ; next,
that he carried weights at which these degenerate days
may look with mingled awe and wonder; and thirdly, that
the competitors who strove to wrest from his honoured
brow the laurel of victory were as might reasonably be ex-
pected through such a long career, almost countless.
The stern page of history dispels, we regret to say, nearly
every illusion under these several heals. In five long years,
the season beginning in March and ending in October,
Hambletonian ran but 17 times, and six out of these were
practically matches. He never ran heats, for which, even
at this distant date, we may be permitted to rejoice; and
the distances which he had to cover varied from "Across
the Flat" to four miles ; and with respect to this, it may be
observed that the Leger course, which is now rather longer
than it was then, is stated as being two miles. This may,
perhaps, lead to some wholesome distrust of " times" and
distances in the records of ancient performances.
In the next place, Hambletonian never carried crushing
weights. At three years old, he carried Sat and Eist 21b, in-
stead of the Bst 101 b of the present day ; and this over a mile
and a half, or a so-called two mile course. In the Doncas-
ter Cup he carried sst 101 b ; only 31b more than two year
olds are now set to carry in the Feather Plate; and we
should not like to undergo the torment which the authori-
ties would receive at the hands of all sporting
writers, our-
selves included, if they proposed to reduce the weight
which the winner of the Leger should carry in the Doncas-
ter Cup from 7st 71b to Get, which would be a corresponding
reduction. Well might the lamenters then raise a wail at
the manifest tendency of such a course of legislation to de-
teriorate the British racehorse. The highest weight he ever
carried in his life was Bst 10Ib, and this at seven years old.
In the race for the Craven Stakes, at Newmarket, he car-
ried Bst 91b A. F.

Thirdly, the horses against which Hambletonian ran
were fow in number. Several he met twice or three times,
and the account before us makes out that out of the
54 losers, whom it discloses, there are only 38 different horses.
Be this as it may, it is abundantly clear that it is easier, for
instance, to frighten away 7 out of 12, and beat the remain-
ing
.4, than it is to perform a corresponding feat with 250
b and 30 or 40 starters ; and this remark applies
a
Derby, Oaks, and Leger winners, whom he
severally defeate,2.
. as to himself. Diamond, indeed, to whom
heis gave
w 31b
as us s
wellcr
api„^ars to have been a fair average horse ;
h
bought out of Hambletonian's
price only,son lyxsoo,
stable; in matches, whicl: supply the clue to merit
which handicaps do now, he nenb..llY figures but moderately;
and, taking the last match made :or him as a specimen,
he receives a year and 71b froo another named
Warter, And it may also be not u,: reasonably in-
ferred—from the fact that, although he had only beaten
some hall dozen animals, ti:eY laid 3 to 3. on him .at York,
and 6 to 4 on him for the St. Xeger—that his oppo:ients
were not first-rate. _ _ .

Now, the nineteenth century man may fairly ask whether
such overwhelming superiority has been proved. Thor-
manby ran, if we remember right, thirteen times as a two
year old againk all sorts of horses, and won the Derby also,
almost before the age at which Hambletonian had appeared
in public—at any rate, before he did anything great; and
if it be remarked, "so much the worse for our present
system," it may be replied, " Yes, that may be so, but
the point now at issue is, whether the animal him.
self is diminished in size and power, not whether all is got
out of him by us which might be." It is what logicians
call ignoratio elenchi which would thus shift the true
issue. Thoulauby, again, carried in the Aoeot Cup 211 b.
more than he would have had in 1776, according to the
then scale of weights. Even in matches, the winner of the
past year's Leger carried 7st 71b as a four year old in the
September following I—while this very day Blair Athol
is
made to carry a weight which Hambletonian never carried
in his life, and at an age when the latter laboured under
171 b less. We think, therefore, except upon the point of
time, that the allegations of the calumniators of our pre
sent race of horses are sufficiently made out to lack suffi-
cient reliable grounds for their assertions.
But is the time more trustworthy? No watches, no
starters' fiaga, courses almost invariably
incorrectly mea-
sured, and exaggerated in distance, Ilk.: that at Doncaster.
These aro the materials out of which repor::'
wonderful
feats, contradictory and inconsistent, are to bb manufac-
tured, to be handed down, not in the pages of the CaLludarr
or by official records, but by the uncertain tradition .."`f
father to son. The performance of Firetail is now pro-
perly given us ae fabulous, but it rests upon
equally sure testimony with those of Childers and
Company. May not they, also, be fallible witnesses ?
In justice to Flying ChilderS, however, we ought to correct
an error in the artiele,whieh appeared in the last Quarterly
Review. The "Round Course" was then 3 miles 6 fur.
93 yards. In 180 G it was " destroyed, and the new one not
finished," which entry appears for several succeeding
Calendars. All mention of it then disappears until 1818,
when it reappears, figuring, as now, at 3 miles 4 fur. 187
yards. Even this, however, does not prove that the time
taken is correctly represented. _ .

We shall turn to this topic again, and shall hope to prove
to demonstration that the old time is no better than the new;
and the last brick of the edifice being then removed, breeders
may take comfort in thinking that it is not true that they
alone have stood still, that while every other domestic
artanimal
and hasevery doe
science cred
have
t to attempt
advanced,
t theyimprovement, every
alone have con-
trived to spoil the treasure which nature has given us, and
--
ruin she noblest legacy which our forefathers' industry has
handed clown to the present day.
a

The Destruction of kr, floxwell's Balloon
at Leicester.

A. meeting convened by the mayor, Mr G. Baines, was
held in the Town-hall, Leicester, on Wednesday evenings
for the purpose of considering the propriety of entering into
a subscription to mitigate the loss which Mr Coxwell had
suffered in the destruction of his balloon at the late Fore•
tere' demonstration on the Leicester race course. The Mayor
presided. In opening the proceedings his worship said he
felt desirous of giving the inhabitants of Leicester an oppor-
tunity of expressing their opinions upon the matter, and
determining what should be dose to remove the stigma
which he feared at present rested upon the town. He thought
their present business was to see how far they could assist
Mr Coxwell in his loss without entering minutely into the
causes of tho disturbance, or endeavouring to ascertain who
was most to blame. But while from his position he felt
anxious that some restitution should be made, he knew that
Leicester had been subjected to most gross misrepresenta-
tion upon the matter, and most foul and dastardly attacks
had been made upon the inhabitants through certain reports
or articles in the Louden papers. Mr Councillor Crossley
moved a resolution to the effect that the meeting regretted
the outrage which had been perpetrated upon Mr Coxwell,
and without offering any, opinion as to where the blame
ought to rest, it proposed to enter into a subscription towards
making up the loss. Mr Alderman E. S. Ellis seconded tha
motion. Mr T. Emery said he sympathised with the object
of the meeting, but thought they should be careful how the
town under the presidency of the Mayor might happen to
endorse by any act the vile representations which had gone
forth to the country. He thought the resolution should
be more distinctly worded, so as to repudiate any necessary
committal of the town to the act of demolition through the
fact of its subscribing towards the loss. They need not
then recount all the circumstances which had brought about
the disgraceful act, but it was known that Mr Coxwell
had attempted to ascend out of a crowd of thousands of
persons, and that the bad blood which had been manifested
towards him had been imported into the town. Bat
he (Mr Emery) protested against the assumption of the
London press, that it was the working classes who were alone
chargeable with this violence, and that as a consequence
they must be kept from the exercise of political power. For
Mr Coxwell had most distinctly stated in his published
letters that the originator of false reports on the ground
was a "professional gentleman," and that another of the
principal disturbers was one who paid his three guineas
for a seat in the car, and consequently belonged to the
privileged orders, And yet the working classes were to be
denied their rights because of this badly managed fete, in
which all classes were to blame. But Leicester people could
better bear to be called felons even, than they could endure
the insinuation that they were fouls. But on account of
this balloon affair they had been designated as something
windy and frothy. He thought that was a reflection upon
the mayor and all the distinguished gentlemen who held
office and gave character to Leicester. Several members
of the Order of Foresters having expressed a desire to take
part in the subscription, the resolution was put and carried
unanimously. A committee having been formed to carry
out the object, the en Ling separated on a vote of thanks to
the mayor,