St. Landry democrat., 1885-02-28
BETTING ON HORSE RACES.
The Various Methods Employed by En-
glish Turfmen to Win Money.

The Various Methods Employed by En-
glish Turfmen to Win Money.
The practice of betting on horse rae
ing has spread to and infected all class
es of the community; the whole countryis
flooded with touts, tipsters and betting
agents, and new methods are invented
every day by those whose business it is
to disseminate the temptation and in
vite victims of all classes to enter the
net so sknlfully spread for them.
Whether it will ever be possible to deal
successfully with this gigantic evil it is
not within my province to decide. The
legislature has made some attempts to
deal with vice which, though it is not
confined to horse racing alone, supplies
the speculator with the easiest and most
popular opportunity for the expressing
of his gambling propensities. 1t must
be confessed, however, that experience
does not warrant us in anticipating
much from parliamentary interference
in mitigation of this great and increasing
evil, of which none can fail to see
around them the terrible results. There
is no class more injuriously affected by
the practice of betting and with worse
results to themselves and the racing
public than the jockeys of the present
day, although the Jockey Club has of
late made an energetic attempt to Crap
pie with the difficulty. 1t is impossible
to enact rule of racing to prevent
jockeys betting, but the stewards have
now renewed the official notice which
was issued last year, that they will make
it condition of the granting of the nee
essary licenses to jockeys that if it shall
be proved to the satisfaction of the
stewards that any jockey has become in
volved in betting transactions he shall be
liable to immediate forfeiture of his IL
cense. It was said at the time of the
issue of this notice that it would prob
ably be imperative, and it is no doubt
the fact that, while there can be little
doubt that many of the leading jockeys
of the day are known to risk in some
instances considerable sums of money
in betting, in no case has the commits
sion of this offense as yet been proved
to the satisfaction of the authorities. 1t
should be remembered, however, that
| the stewards of the Jockey Club labor
under the serious difficulty that the evil
dence brought before them can not be
taken on oath, and it will be readily un-
derstood that under these circumstances
the difficulty of obtaining satisfac-
tory proof OF the truth of charges and
accusations, however openly made and
generally believed, is very great. On
the other hand, the notice above re-
ferred to has made it clear to Jockeys
that if they engage largely in betting
transactions, either directly in person
or indirectly through the agency of
their friends, they now do so at their
own risk and peril. 1t is impossible to
doubt that, difficult as it is to procure
sufficient evidence, proofs viii before
long be forthcoming, and some signal
example will be made of the offenders
who have been encouraged to believe
that they can with IMMUNITY set the reg
ulations of the stewards at defiance.
Whenever an opportunity does occur of
Furnishing a jockey for the infraction of
the above salutary provision [ venture
to express hope that the stewards will
include in that punishment, by warning
them off Newmarket heath, all those
who may be proved to have aided and
tempted Jockeys to the commission of
the offense, and who are more to blame
than the jockeys themselves
Cardigan, IN Fortnight ReUiea0.