Horses take their ages from May Day.
1760 yards are a mile.
240 yards are a distance.
Four inches are a hand.
Fourteen pounds are a stone.
When HORSES are matched at CATCH WEIGHTS, each party may appoint any
person to ride, without weighing either before or after the race.
GIVE and TAKE PLATES are for horses of fourteen hands high, to carry a
stated weight, above or below which more or less is to be carried,
allowing seven pounds for every inch.
A WHIM PLATE is weight for age, and weight for inches.
A POST MATCH is made by inferring the _age_ of the horses in the
articles; and the parties possess the privilege of bringing _any_ horse
of _that age_ to the post, without making any previous declaration
whatever, of name, colour, or qualifications.
A HANDICAP MATCH. See HANDICAP.
RIDERS must ride their horses (after running) to the SCALES to weigh;
and he that dismounts without so doing, or wants weight when weighed, is
deemed a _distanced_ horse.
The HORSE, whose HEAD first reaches the ending POST wins the HEAT.
If a RIDER falls from his horse, and the horse is rode in by a person
who is sufficient weight, he will take place the same as if it had not
happened, provided he goes back to the place where the other fell.
HORSE'S PLATES (or shoes) not allowed in the weight.
Horses not entitled to start, without producing a proper certificate of
their age, if required, at the time specified in the articles, except
where AGED horses are included; and in that case, a _junior_ horse may
enter without a certificate, provided he carries the same weight as the
aged.
All BETS are for the best of the plate, where nothing is said to the
contrary.
For the BEST of the PLATE, where there are three heats run, the horse is
deemed SECOND best who wins ONE.
For the BEST of the HEATS, the horse is _second_ that beats the others
twice out of three times, though he does not win a heat.
In all BETS, either bettor may demand STAKES to be made; and on refusal,
declare the bet _void_. A confirmed BET cannot be _off_ but by mutual
consent.
If one of the PARTIES is _absent_ on the DAY of RUNNING, a public
declaration may be made of the BET upon the Course, accompanied with a
demand, whether any person present will make STAKES for the absent
party, which proportion not being acceded to, the bet may be declared
_void_.
BETS agreed to be paid or received in town, or at any other particular
place, cannot be declared _off_ on the Course.
If a MATCH is made for any particular day, in any meeting at NEWMARKET,
and the parties agree to change the day, all bets must STAND; but if run
in a different meeting, the bets made before the alteration are _void_.
The person who lays the ODDS, has a right to chuse his HORSE or the
_field_.
When a person has chosen his horse, the field is what starts against
him; but there is no field, if the horse so named has no opponent.
BETS made for POUNDS, are always paid in GUINEAS.
If ODDS are _laid_, without mentioning the horse before it is over, it
must be determined as the _bets were_ at the time of making it.
BETS made in running, are not determined till the PLATE is WON, if that
heat is not mentioned at the time of betting.
Where a PLATE is won by _two heats_, the preference of the horses is
determined by the places they are in at the termination of the second
heat.
HORSES running on the wrong side of a POST, and not turning back to
completely recover their ground, are _distanced_.
Horses _drawn_ between any of the heats, before the plate is WON, are
distanced.
Horses are deemed _distanced_, if their RIDERS cross and jostle, when
the ARTICLES do not permit it.
If a horse WINS the first heat, and all others _draw_, they are not
distanced, if he starts no more; but if he starts again by himself, the
drawn horses are distanced.
When BETS are made after a heat upon a subsequent event, if the horse so
betted upon does not start, the BETS so made are _void_.
When three horses have EACH won a HEAT, they only must start for a
fourth, and the preference between them will be determined by it, there
having before been no difference between them.
No horse can be distanced in a fourth heat.
When the words "_play or pay_" are included in a BET, it is thus
decided: the horse which does not appear, and be ready to start, at the
time appointed, is the _loser_; and the other is the WINNER, although he
goes over the Course by himself.
In running heats, if it cannot be decided which is _first_, the heat is
then called a DEAD HEAT, and they may all start again; unless it should
happen in the _last_ heat, and then it must be between the two horses
which, if _either_ had WON, the race would have been decided; but if
between two, that by either winning the race would not have been
determined, then it is no heat, and the others may all start again.
BETS made upon horses WINNING any number of PLATES within the year,
remain in force till the FIRST DAY of MAY.
MONEY given to have a bet _laid_, not returned, if not run.
To propose a BET, and say "done" _first_ to it, the person who replies
"done" to it, makes it a confirmed bet.
MATCHES and BETS are void on the _decease_ of either party before they
are determined.
THE
_EXACT DISTANCES_
OF THE
DIFFERENT COURSES at NEWMARKET
ARE AS FOLLOW.
Miles. Furlongs. Yards.
The Beacon Course is 4 1 138
Last three miles of ditto 3 0 45
From the Ditch-in 2 0 97
The last mile and a distance of B. C. 1 1 156
Ancaster Mile 1 0 18
Fox's Course 1 6 55
From the turn of the lands, in 0 5 184
Clermont Course (from the Ditch) }
to the Duke's Stand } 1 5 217
Across the Flat 1 2 44
Rowley Mile 1 0 1
Ditch Mile 0 7 178
Abingdon Mile 0 7 211
Two middle miles of B. C. 1 7 125
Two Years Old Course 0 5 136
Yearling Course 0 2 147
Round Course 3 6 93
Duke's Course 4 0 184
Bunbury's Mile 0 7 208
Dutton's Course 3 0 0
The New Roundabout Course on the Flat is nearly a mile and three
quarters.
The great and leading qualification of a horse bred for the TURF, is the
purity of his blood, which can only be insured by the verity of his
PEDIGREE, and this, to be authentic, must be signed by the BREEDER, and
is in purchase and sale always transferred with the horse. The most
distinguishing trait of judgment in racing, is first to ascertain the
exact speed of the horse, and then to discover of what precise weight he
is master; that he may not be retarded in one, by being overloaded with
the other. Attentive experience with the PROFESSORS and AMATEURS for a
series of years, has long since fully demonstrated, upon practical
proof, (for the trials have been repeatedly made even to the _key_ of
the stable-_door_,) that the celerity is, in certain degrees, to be
increased or impeded by the weight the horse has to carry. It will,
therefore, be readily conceived, if two horses are tolerably equal in
speed, strength, blood, and bone, as well as of the same year, the horse
which carries the least weight by only _three pounds_, must, in the
course of FOUR MILES, display the advantage he has over his antagonist;
particularly as the longer the race, the more will the horse be affected
by the weight he carries; and those who are the best and most
experienced judges, hesitate not to affirm, that the addition of _seven
pounds_ weight carried by one, where both are thought of equal speed,
will, if the ground is run honestly over, make the difference of a
DISTANCE (two hundred and forty yards) in the four miles only.
The racing weights most in use for half a century past, have been
according to age and qualifications, from about seven stone seven, to
nine stone twelve, or ten stone; except in matches with two years old,
and yearlings at light or _feather_ weights, and the KING'S HUNDREDS,
for which (till some trifling alterations lately adopted) they carried
at six years old TWELVE STONE. There are, however, some NEW CLUBS,
lately instituted by NOBLEMEN and GENTLEMEN of the first distinction,
who hold their meetings at BIBURY and KINGSCOTE, in Gloucestershire,
where the weights are advanced beyond former example to twelve or
thirteen stone, upon a well-founded principle of exciting emulation in
BREEDERS to pay some attention to BONE as well as to BLOOD; a most
judicious and salutary improvement, considering the infinity of _weeds_
that are annually drafted and destined to the hammer of a repository, as
objects of neither value, utility, or attraction.