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HORSE RACING AS A SPORT Is the popular interest in horse racing as entirely dependent on gambling as tlie people who never ine It may freely be ad ¬ mitted that on many of the smaller courses it is conducted as a business and nothing but a business and often a prettv sordid business too but on courses like Flemingtoii Canltleld and Randwic there is a great deal of sport patronized purely for sports sake The professional racing fraternity ap ptars to constitute a larger proportion of the attend ¬ ance than is really the case for it is a loud bustling and obtrusive element and by its noise alone seems to dominate the proceedings The great majority of those present content themselves with a very mild investment many of them going no farther than to risk half a crown or live shillings in a private sweep and many others not going even so far as that Strictly speaking of course a halferoVn sweep constitutes a gamble just as playing bridge for sixiHiiie a hundred does but only the moral purist who generally drfeits his purpose by pushing tilings to impossible extremes refuses to allow weight to the question of degree in such a connec ¬ tion And not a few people who liud racing suf ¬ ficiently interesting and amusing without any bet ¬ ting at all refuse to play bridge without th small staKc rcquirid to steady the game To those who wish to bet the turf uncmestionably affords an ex ¬ cellent medium for betting just as bicylcle racing did and aeroplane racing will The reason for its being made the principal medium is that people of British blood have always had such a strong passion for the horse Therefore though racing is the fa ¬ vorite sport of many simply because of the facilities it offers for gambling it should not be forgotten that gambling originally fastened on it and still maintains its grip because the sport was and is in itself so popular The ranger of Fleminglon race course lias seen forty four Melbourne Cups run with ¬ out having put so much as a sixpenny bit on a horse and is of opinion that many people go then without a thought of gambling Those who know anything about it will have no hesitation in continuing this view An important meeting at one of the big race courses is something1 in the nature of a social func ¬ tion and thousands of people find all the pleasure they want lu the life and brilliancy of the scene Gambling counts for a good deal in horse racing but it does not constitute anything like its whole charm Melbourne Argus
