Many curious anecdotes have, from time to time, been circulated about
the doings of various officers of the turf, not a few of them, perhaps,
of a rather imaginative kind. In one or two instances where the clerk
of the course acted also as handicapper, as well as being lessee of the
grand stand, it is said that it was his custom to "retain" all the big
stakes; in plain language, it has been more than once implied that some
handicappers were allowed, by certain owners, to keep the stake-money,
on condition of the horses entered by them being favoured in the
apportioning of the weights. "If my horse wins," would say an owner,
"the bets I make will pay me; therefore I shall not trouble myself
about the stakes." Such stories must be taken with the usual grain of
salt. A story, however, was recently circulated by a well-known turf
writer about a small owner, who, having won an important handicap,
called on the clerk of the course to lift the stakes; he was received
with a most incredulous stare, but after a brief pause, the official
wrote out and signed the necessary cheque. "There," said he, "but learn
your business better; don't let this occur again."
This official requires to "look sharp," and he must keep his eyes wide
open while engaged in the performance of his duties, otherwise he may
become the victim of a tricky jockey or owner, who has an object to
gain by perpetrating a fraud. It has more than once occurred that the
scales have been tampered with by a piece of lead being fastened to
them in a hidden place, in some cases before the boys were weighed, in
some cases after that process had been performed, the object being to
have the rider of the winning horse disqualified for carrying more or
less than the stipulated weight.
The success of race-meetings is greatly dependent on the knowledge
and talent of the handicapper, owners and trainers being, as has been
said, jealous and exacting. Of late years, increased sums of money have
been added by the managers or lessees of certain race-meetings to the
races announced, but in several instances without having the desired
effect of swelling the acceptances or the field. No handicapper is
thought to be successful unless the owners of more than half of the
horses entered are pleased to cry content with the weights allotted to
them. It occasionally happens, however, that although a handicap may be
remarkably well constructed, and every horse be allotted a fair weight,
the acceptances for various reasons may be small--so small on occasion,
as to render the race to all intents and purposes a failure. He would,
indeed, be a clever handicapper if he could please all who enter their
horses in any given race; consequently, when a handicap is published
there is very often a loud chorus of disappointment. One owner compares
the heavy weight assigned to his horse with the light weight bestowed
on some other animal which has beaten it. Owners, dissatisfied with the
work of this official, sometimes strike their horses out of the race,
without waiting till the date when the acceptances have to be declared,
which is altogether a mistaken policy. It very often happens that the
views of the handicapper are triumphantly endorsed by the result of the
race, when two or three of the horses carrying the heaviest imposts of
the handicap will make a bolder bid for victory than any of the other
animals, the honours of the race falling, perhaps, to the horse which
carries the top weight. Handicappers, "it is said," are occasionally
"got at," with the result that some well-planned _coup_ is brought off,
in which a horse carrying a light impost, by favour of the official in
question, is declared the winner.
Persons who have long been behind the scenes of the racing arena
could doubtless relate many stories of the kind indicated, and as
handicappers, like other men, are bung-full of human nature, it is not
to be wondered at if, being sorely tempted, they sometimes fall. But
at the present time the official in question is more often a victim of
some other man's crime than a criminal himself. Handicappers are born
to be deceived. They form a target for owners to shoot their arrows at,
if such a simile is applicable; horses are run in all fashions in order
to deceive them, and frequently with success.
It has hitherto been a fashion to hold up Admiral Rous to the
admiration of the turf world as the greatest artist in the "putting
together" of horses that has ever been known, but statements to that
effect must be taken only for what they are worth. Such a man as "the
Admiral" was not, of course, open to accept any vulgar bribe; no
person would have had the hardihood to offer him a "monkey," or even
a pipe of fine old port, to be allowed to place his own weight on his
own horse. But the Admiral was quite as easily deceived as many other
handicappers, with the result of being occasionally remorselessly
"sold" in the same way by a well-devised "plant," of which some
carefully-kept horse which had been ridden out of its distance at petty
meetings was the hero. It is impossible, with the fierce light which
now beats on his work, for a handicapper, unless he has been deceived
himself, to go far wrong; he does his duty, as may be said, in a glass
house, under the eye of all interested, and dare not therefore, if
he would, commit any serious _faux pas_, however great might be the
temptation held out to him.
The work of the starter is occasionally most onerous and difficult to
perform satisfactorily. Firmness and decision of character ought to
be the chief characteristic of this officer of the turf. At times as
many as thirty, and even on occasion forty horses will assemble to
compete in some popular handicap, each jockey being eager to secure an
advantage over his neighbour at the start. Many of the lads are mounted
on animals difficult to govern, whilst others of the jockeys will,
of set purpose, do their best to goad their horses into a state of
unrest, for the sake of delaying the start, until some tiny boy mounted
on a favourite is beaten with cold and fatigue before the race is even
begun to be run. Such tactics have been often resorted to; they seem to
form a feature of "jockeyship." As all who frequent race-meetings know,
the starter has a great deal in his power.
That the gentlemen who officiate as starters at the present time are
honest in their vocation, men whom no bribe would tempt to go wrong,
however large it might be, may be taken for granted. But it was not
always so; there was a time in the history of the turf, when the duties
of starter were entrusted to any Tom, Dick, or Harry, with the result
that they were carelessly, if not dishonestly performed. Nothing is
more annoying to an owner of a valuable horse than to see the animal
distressed by a number of false starts--especially when it has been
heavily backed and is thought to possess a great chance of securing a
victory. On such occasions the power of a horse is frittered before
racing begins, and its winning chance lessened thereby. At one period
of turf history, according to an authority already mentioned, the
duties of starter were so inefficiently performed that Lord George
Bentinck, who reformed many of the abuses incidental to the sport of
kings, used himself voluntarily to undertake the task of starting
the horses whenever a great event was about to be decided. From his
high position in the turf world, his experience acquired as an active
steward of the Jockey Club, and the fact of his being the proprietor
of many valuable horses, as well as of an immense breeding stud, Lord
George was well able to keep the most refractory jockeys in order, and
so ensure a fair start.