I do not intend at present to say much about gate-money meetings.
The premier position must undoubtedly be accorded to that held at
Manchester. The best proof of the success which has attended the
company carrying on business at New Barnes is, that it has been able to
pay enormous dividends to its shareholders, and that its hundred-pound
shares, when any are offered for sale, command six or seven times the
original price. The Whitsuntide meeting at Manchester, when the weather
is favourable for such out-door sports, is attended by hundreds of
thousands of persons, all of whom have to pay for their admission to
the race-ground at the rate of one shilling or sixpence a head--those
desirous of making use of the grand stand, the paddock, and other
accommodations, pay for these at the usual rate. It is but fair to say
that the vast assemblage of spectators at Manchester conduct themselves
wonderfully well. When anything exciting occurs--when a giant roar is
set up, it is of course "the voice of the people" that is heard--it
is the horny handed "sons of toil" chiefly who rush to New Barnes on
the great racing days, and in every respect the scene presented is
a contrast to the shows of Ascot and Goodwood, where the "silks and
satins" of the upper ten outshine the cottons of Lancashire. But the
aim of its promoters is achieved, inasmuch as it brings plenty of grist
to their mill, ten thousand shillings counts as five hundred pounds,
and ten times that amount is "money," even in "brass-loving" Lancashire.
There is abundance of racing at Manchester, many of the handicaps being
enriched by the addition of munificent sums of money. But in respect to
the "added money," is it all gold that glitters even at Manchester? It
has been complained at any rate that, when the management seem to give
a pound, they in reality only give half of that sum; they get back,
such is the accusation made, a moiety of what they give in entrance
fees or in shares of surplus money from the disposal of winners of
selling races. In this matter of what is called "added money," a
writer, who comments on the subject, explains that such sums must be
taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. For instance, in the matter of
a Nursery plate in which a hundred pounds is given from the race fund,
it must be taken into account that thirty-two subscribers pay three
sovereigns each, so that in such case all that is really given is four
pounds, the subscribers running their horses for ninety-six pounds
of their own money. There is no charge of any kind made for admission
to the heath during the four days of Ascot, and yet the value of the
stakes run for there in 1881, as has been stated, amounted to more than
thirty-two thousand pounds.
The principal shareholders of the Manchester racing company are reputed
to be bookmakers, and if the meeting did not pay as a meeting, there
is such a plethora of gambling, of laying and backing, as, in the four
days at Whitsuntide alone, will be represented in hundreds of thousands
of pounds. It is quite certain, in regard to this racecourse, that
the amount of money taken at the gates, no matter what may be said,
is really enormous; on the Cup day, the mere shillings of head money,
not taking into account the receipts of the stands, will be over five
thousand pounds.
The controversy which has raged at intervals over the establishment
of what have in a somewhat contemptuous spirit been called "gate
meetings," has not ceased. "Prejudice," say they who approve of this
system of racing, is "ill to kill"; but it is far better that a
race meeting should be made self-supporting than that all kinds of
contemptible begging should be resorted to to keep up the pastime in
the half-hearted way that it used to be kept up in many localities,
by appeals to the lord of the manor and other country gentlemen, by
donations from licensed victuallers and miscellaneous shopkeepers who
are supposed to reap pecuniary benefit from the bringing together of
crowds of people to witness the sport, or by doles from interested
railway companies.
It would be easy to prove that all the successful race meetings of the
period are, in a certain sense, "gate-money meetings--Epsom, Ascot,
Doncaster, York, Goodwood, and Liverpool, as well as some others." The
charges made for the accommodation of the patrons of these meetings are
so high that they produce a large profit. The promoters of the sport
can therefore well afford to allow all who cannot afford three or four
guineas for the privileges of their stands and paddocks to see what
they can of the sport for nothing, and thousands upon thousands avail
themselves of the chances offered. To say that many hundred thousand
persons obtain a gratuitous view of the Derby, Oaks, and St. Leger, is
only to tell the truth.
As an argument, say some of the writers on this subject, what more
would you have than the crowds which patronise the meetings of
Manchester and Derby? They are four or five times larger than the
crowds that assemble at Newmarket even to witness the Cesarewitch or
Cambridgeshire. That is so, doubtless; but in reply it may be asked,
what of the contributing area of population as between the two places?
Newmarket has only a few thousand residents, but the Manchester
racecourse, with its yearly half-dozen meetings, draws the spectators
of racing from an immediate population of more than a million persons.
It is difficult to say how a race meeting should be constituted; it is
a matter in which there is room for argument, and on which much may
be said on both sides of the question; and as nothing succeeds like
success, why should there not be gate-money meetings, if the people are
willing to support them? So far as the writer knows, it is not the
duty of any particular body of persons to provide gratuitous pastimes
of any kind for the people, especially horse-racing, which is a sport
of a very expensive description. The fact that the "gate meetings"
recently opened "pay," settles the question, and renders any defence
of the policy which has resulted in their establishment unnecessary.
That they afford opportunity for a still greater amount of gambling,
and that at some of them the "sport" is exceedingly poor, is only what,
under such circumstances, is to be expected; still, as all familiar
with the turf and its surroundings very well know, it is as easy,
nay, easier, to institute a big gamble on a contemptible race as on a
contest for a St. Leger.
The author has no intention of saying anything in the meantime about
the modern meetings instituted during recent years, as for instance,
those charming reunions held at Kempton and Sandown Parks. Some old
race meetings, too, are also passed over without notice, such as that
held at Stockbridge; a time may come, however, when it will be apropos
to run over the racing records of such institutions, as also to furnish
a brief record of several meetings that have been long since relegated
to the domains of past history.