Year: 1869

Discussion as to the deterioration of the
race horse in Great Britain will never cease
so long as the present system of racing pre-
walls in that country. There is but one light
in which to view the subject, and that is that
racing in Great Britain is not calculated to
improve the race horse, but simply affords
an extensive field for gambling. The inclina-
tions of the British public, from the peer to
the peasant, run strongly in favor of gambling
in horselesh, and bookmakers are to be found
in every corner of the realm among the rich,
while what are called ''sweeps" find place
in every gin shop and ale house in the land
Another class Of philosophers also exists in
that country, men who thrive on the credulity
of bookmakers and others by protesting 10
have a certain means of ascertaining in ad-
vance which is to be the winning horse in any
great event to take place, very much in the
style of the fortune telers of our own city, who
pretend to foretell ''the past, the present and
the future" The bookmakers are a powerful
class of themselves, many of them owning
large estates and numerous race horses; while
those who indulge in ''sweeps" are composed
of such enterprsing individuals as are willing
to invest from a penny up to q pound, but who,
however, are just as deeply interested as those
who have thousands at stake, and make up the
large attendance that we hear Of at all the
great race meetings of England; and yet few
of them really see much of the races that they
attend. AL they remember about the running
is that they have ''been t races'-because the
English race courses are so peculiarly formed
that the horses can only be seen at intervals
while running on most of them, particularly
those at long distances.


II is this general gambling interest that
makes short dashes and handicap racing so
popular in Great Britain; for the more numer-
Gus the races the greater the chances Of win-
ming. They care nothing for the horse,
whether he be two year old or aged, so long
as he serves their purposes; and the greater
number they can mass together in race the
greater the opportunity for gambling. The
handicap system had its origin in like
motives. II was simply by overweighting
good horse that they hoped to reduce
him to the level Of poor one, and so to add
another link to the chain of ingenious con-
trivances for speculation. There was no at
tempt at the improvement of the horse in all
this, but the reverse. This is the system at
tempted to be inaugurated in this country by
gentlemen who have been abroad and imbibcd
the delusion that the English style of racing
was a proper thing to be introduced here,
where the Improvement OF the horse, and
not encouragement to gambling, is tho
osteusible object Of all racing and has
been so for nearly century. This English
system has been in partial operation here
for the past ten years, and Is still persisted
in by the few who claim for IL superior ad-
vantages in opposition to the popular senti-
ment of the American people. IL is evi-
dent that nothing but mischief has grown
out of this system, and its ultimate tens
dcncy here, as In Great Britain, is to
foster gambling and dcterioratc the status Of
the running horse. All attemots st books