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ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE HANDICAP. Steady Advancement of a Style of Racing Unknown to the Founders of tho Popular Sport. Tracing. the handicap style of racing to its origin, it doubtless sprung from the scale of wcight-for-age as far hack as 1740, when a statute was passed fixing ten stone for five-year-olds, eleven stone for six and twelve stone for the aged; hut it was not until later that the handicap took any definite form aiid it was chiefly applied to matches. As the num-, lifer of horses increased and many were not good enough to compete in weight-for-age races, the .handicap soon gained a wider footing and in 1701 the first important handicap took place at Ascot and led finally to one of the most regrettable acts connected witli the Kritish turf. The race was called the Oatlands Stakes and was won by the Prince of Wales Escape, whose subsequent running led to the retirement of the prince and the fall of Ohifncy, the jockey and trainer, who lived at the palace at Six ililo ISottom, from which place a gallop known as the eight mile course had its commencement, joining the l.eacon course at Alington Hill and so away to Newmarket. No sooner had the handicap become thoroughly established, with the Crester Cup. the Liverpool Cup, the Chesterfield and Stewards Cup at Goodwood and tho Ccsarewitch and Cambridgeshire in full awing, than it was attacked by some of the members of the Jockey Club on the plea that it was making racing a money-making business instead pf a sport. In its early days no limit to tho featherweight existed and it was generally considered that a low weight was a direct encourage nient to enter many inferior horses, so long as any boy could be found to ride them, the result being a "scramble among horses not desired on the turf at all and ridden by inferior riders. At tho same time it was soon generally admitted that racing, even so far back, could not possibly live by weight-for-age races alone. In a long and keen debate by the leading racing men it was clearly shown that, owing to the great inequality in horses, racing could not be kept up as a national sport unless horses not in the first class .could be given a chance to win races. Tho result was that those who had attacked the handicap keenest were amongst the soundest converts, and .before long it was generally discovered that it was in reality an absolutely necessary item in every program. Minimum "Weight Fixed at 63 Pounds. Having settled that point, the Jockey Club set itself to work to discover the soundest basis on which handicaps could be managed, and when the "Rules of Racing were revised by a full house of Jockey Club members about 1858 a minimum weight was fixed at 63 pounds. A couple of years later it was attacked again, and Lord Kcdesdale brought forward a proposal to limit the minimum to seven stone, or if that was impossible to not lower than S4 pounds. In a keen debate, in which Lord Derby, Lord Uranville, Earl Winchelsea. and the Duke of Beaufort figured most prominently, the chief opposition to light weights was that tho riders were too small for such dangerous work, and that it was calculated to encourage speed rather than stamina. But no outside legislature ever appears to have done any good to racing, and the Jockey Club stiU, as ever, make their own laws. Early in the sixties the minimum was raised to 77 pounds, and there it remained satisfactory to all until a dearth of good lightweights brought altout a rise to 84 pounds a few years ago. With our ancestors, Avho had a great practical knowledge of the horse, it was unanimously agreed that it was quite wrong to suppose that, by raising the top weights proportionately with the minimum weight, an equality could be produced any more than is the case now. The most successful handicap Admiral Kous ever made was the City and Suburban lie so often quoted, when ho ranged 135 horses between 120 pounds and fi3 pounds and .obtained 100 acceptances. He, witli John Scott, the Dawsons, and every competent contemporary in that age, declared that a "high standard of weights was most detrimental to first-class horses, for when they have to race under welter-weights they must before long be injured, or break down altogether." Argument Against Raising Minimum "Weight. That, of course, is undisputed, and when people are tnlking so glibly of raising the minimum they lose sight of the good horse and the injury it might work. If in these days ideas have changed, in many things, for the better perhaps, it cannot be argued that the horse has improved also, and in comparison with the grand, powerful horse, say of Admiral , Rous early time witli their hardy constitutions, few could be found today to carry welter-weights many times over the long distances. It is no argument in its favor to point to the fact that two-year-olds race under 132 pounds, and that yearlings are ridden by heavy lads, for who knows that this is not one of the chief reasons why so many of our two-year-olds deteriorate instead of improving; and, except for the temptation of rich stakes, how many owners and good, practical men would not in their heart of hearts prefer to keep many two-year-olds for another season without racing at all. Can it bo in the best interests of racing to crush the good horse in order to bring the plater to terms of equality? In flat racing the chief bete noir has never been tho scheming owner or trainer, who cither resorts to all sorts of tricks to deceive the handi-capper or keeps a good two-year-old for a year or two, under pretense, perhaps, of its having gone amiss, until it has been forgotten. It is against this which handicappers require most to guard, and yet it is here- where they appear most lax, and thereby ruin their work and cause the most widespread dissatisfaction. It has to be recognized, of course, that surprises in handicaps, as well as in other races, must be somewhat plentiful, and no rules could prove of much assistance. They cannot alter the principle of handicapping, which is for handicappers to use their own judgment entirely, and as long as one lasts, his judgment must be sometimes at fault. "Warren Hill," iu Loudon Sporting Life.
