The list of Lord Moreton's hounds, which should have appeared in our last Number, at page 436, has been received, and shall have insertion as soon as space can be found for it. We regret that the nature of our arrangements precludes the possibility of more than the brief notice given in the Monthly Memorabilia, of the dinner to Sir John Barker Mill on his resigning the Mottisfont hounds. Notices of the Sporting subjects in the Exhibitions of the Royal Academy, and The New Society of the Painters in Water Colours, are unavoidably postponed from want of room. We cannot give insertion to articles which do not contain matter of interest for the general reader. One or two recently received of this description are, in fact, actual advertisements, and would be fairly chargeable as such with the duty. A letter, bearing the Clifton post-mark, on the subject of the insolent attacks made upon this work by the proprietors of a contemporary, has been received: its motives are courteously acknowledged, but further use cannot be made of it. The galled jade will wince, and, poor devils! their withers, we know, are raw to the bone. We regard them more in sorrow than in anger, and could even pity them, did they not yell so like beaten curs. The parcel from Switzerland has been received; the proposed communication from Pisa, in all its branches, will be most acceptable: the Editor will see that the Leghorn commission is executed, and is most sensible of his correspondent's polite attention. The article on "Winter Amusements on the Alleghany Mountains" has come to hand. We received, as we were going to press, the Set of the Liverpool Grand National Steeple Chase, published by Messrs. Fores, of Piccadilly. We have no room here to do justice to these truly splendid plates, the notice of which we reserve for our next Number. This much, however, we cannot leave unsaid, that, as a collection of portraits, we have never seen any sporting prints of the same description approach their truth and excellence. It is not for us to recommend them to public patronage; that they do for themselves: our part, hereafter, will be to point out the fidelity of their execution, which, as conversant with the scenes and parties delineated, we are in a situation to do with accuracy, and with all praise of Mr. G. H. Laporte, their clever designer. The communication from "Beech Grove" shall be dealt with as desired. The engraving will probably not appear for a fortnightwhen it does, it shall be sent the painting should be addressed to the Sporting Review Office, 191, Regent Street. T. F., Market Harboro', should never pin his faith on newspaper news; he certainly loses his bet about Lord Wilton having taken the Quorn Hounds. His Lordship is as likely to take the veil. We give the title page to Vol. I., as well as the index to it, and to the Turf Register, in our present Number. Proof Impressions of all the plates that have appeared in the SPORTING REVIEW may be had at the Publisher's, price 2s. each. THE CRISIS OF ENGLISH RACING. BY THE EDITOR. It is not whether the winner of the late Derby was, at the time, a three or a four-year-old, nor whether the winner of the Oaks had or had not a grandam, that I purpose inquiring in this paper. A question of infinitely more general concern, involving no speculation, but arising out of facts which men must have shut their eyes not to have seen, addresses itself to our notice; one, indeed, which can no longer with any propriety be suffered to remain uninvestigated in a work of this nature. The importance of the Turf, in a national point of view, has been established in this country by the votes of centuries, and the whole civilized world is fast becoming convert to the same opinion. Time, that confirmed the social service rendered by racing, also afforded the truest means of maturing a system by which it might best be conducted and governed. Such a system gradually organized itself, and has, for more than a century and a half, been conventionally adopted and subscribed to as the statute law of the Turf. How well that code worked, and how valuable were its rules of practice, are triumphantly shewn in the character which attaches to the English thorough-bred horse. The hour has arrived when those laws and regulations are not only covertly attacked, but openly set at defiance: with it has come the necessity for a vigorous examination into the causes of that apostasy, and a fearless denunciation of the principles out of which it has grown. The open robberies which have from time to time occurred upon the Turf have had no evil influence upon its prosperity; indeed they most probably had a contrary effect, tending to alarm and warn others who might have mischief in contemplation, as storms and tempests serve to purify the atmosphere. The cases of Ludlow, Becassine, and Harkaway, act as racing beacons-pointing out the courses that should be avoided, or the ruin that is certain to ensue. It is the quiet stealthy pace with which startling innovations upon the old system have recently stolen into the modern code that is most to be apprehended: it is not by sudden bursts of open fraud, but by the still, constant flowing of sharp practice that its foundation is likely to be undermined. To shew that it stands in the latter predicament we need not go back beyond two or three seasons. I will therefore commence with that of 1836; and, following downwards the incidents which have attracted most attention from their novelty or other peculiarity, avoid the possibility of being charged with any intentional personalities, while I establish my arguments by proofs that cannot be gainsaid. By many degrees the best two-year-old that 1835 produced was Elis, a chestnut colt, bought by Lord Lichfield of Charles C. Greville, Esq. He won the Chesterfield Stakes-the Molecomb at Goodwood : the Clearwell and Criterion; besides walking over for a large stake. In the spring of 1836 he met Lord Jersey's Bay Middleton for the Two Thousand Guineas Stakes, by whom he was only beaten by a neck, the exquisite riding of James Robinson going quite as far to secure the victory as the speed of his horse. Of Bay Middleton I have already had occasion to say, that next to Plenipotentiary I shall always account him the best racer the present century has produced: his noble owner indeed has declared that he never had anything in his stable within a stone as good as he was. In July, 1836, Elis won the Drawing Room Stakes at Goodwood, and two days after ran second to Hornsea for the Cup, and won the Racing Stakes. Within a fortnight he won the Lewes Stakes, beating a strong field, and stood consequently the first of his year, by odds, barring one. Now Bay Middleton was not in the Leger; and among the industrious of the ring, those occupied in calculating and backing chances, Elis, notwithstanding his place in Tattersall's list, was eagerly booked at such odds as could be had during the summer. These varied from 7 to 10 to 1 against him, and were, I have reason to know, taken to a large amount. About a month prior to Doncaster Races, a notice was posted in the Subscription room at Tattersall's, to which I thus alluded at the time : 66 Nothing more remarkable connected with the turf has appeared in late years. It (the notice) was to this effect: that 'Elis would not go for the Leger, nor be sent at all to the north unless, in the first instance, the odds to £1200 could be got on, at 12 to 1 against him.' Now as this could not be got in the market, it only remained for such as had him in their field to club among them the amount out of their bargains, or lose the certainty of being able, when once he reached Doncaster, to hedge their money at something like a Moorfields' premium. The necessary preliminaries being adjusted; that is to say, the long odds being wrung, in Shakspeare's phrase, from the "horny fists" that had, during the summer, succeeded in scraping them together— it was announced that "Elis had left Newmarket for Doncaster." He won the Leger, and his party their odds to £1200 at 12 to 1. The matter passed quietly: no public manifestation was exhibited, and thus a novel precedent became established; namely, that parties having horses (favourites or otherwise) engaged in races, may refuse to allow them to start for such engagements, unless they are, in the first instance, secured a certain sum for allowing them to leave their stables. Not the least remarkable feature in this occurrence was the little sensation caused by it, when contrasted with the outcry raised about Sheet Anchor's not going for the Ascot Cup three months before. In that case no bargain was attempted, but the owner simply "did as he pleased with his own." Nevertheless he was roundly abused; shewn up in caricatures, and subjected to all manner of discourtesy. At the Doncaster Meeting a circumstance took place, which, as it bears upon matter to be dealt with in the course of this paper, I must touch upon here. Elis, I have said, won the Leger, and Scroggins was awarded the second place. Now by many it was held that Bee's-wing was second; but setting that aside, why was she not placed? Scroggins was pronounced second by a neck-how could that decision be come at without a knowledge of what had run him so close? The early portion of 1839 did not pass over without some causes for discontent; but as they were such as were common to its predecessors, I leave them, to hasten to Goodwood, where one of the most splendid trophies was to be contended for, as a racing prize of modern years. I speak of the Thousand Guineas Waterloo Shield, the free gift of Lord George Bentinck. One of the conditions for that rich trophy was an allowance of 5 lb. to all horses not placed for the Goodwood Cup, run for on the day preceding. The effect of this improvement upon the ordinary rules of racing, was to cause Slane, one of the best racers of his day, to be started without any idea of running to winbut merely to earn the allowance. There was not the shadow of wrong, it is true, in so doing, upon the part of his gallant proprietor, who openly declared his purpose; but what mischief might not be occasioned to those at a distance, who might have backed the horse under the old-fashioned idea, that as he started it was to win if he could. The First October Meeting at Newmarket gave rise to a most unpleasant collision between Mr. Charles Greville and myself, on the subject of his horse Mango, the winner of the Doncaster St. Leger. The matter came before the Stewards of the Jockey Club, and then, for the first time in my life, I learnt that I had dealt with an issue as dishonourable, which was strictly conformable to the rules of racing. I do not intend to convey that, upon the occasion of the Newmarket St. Leger, Mr. Greville had availed himself of the privilege-but I am to be understood as saying, I was then instructed that, by the present rule of practice on the Turf, no proprietor is bound to declare whether his horse be sound or unsound, fit or unfit to run for any race for which he may be publicly backed or otherwise. I pause here for a space from my narrative, to put a question which, however, every man's common sense will, probably, have already suggested and replied to. When it had become competent for proprietors of horses, notoriously backed at a recognised mart for such traffic, to require payment for the appearance of their horses at the post; when, again, there existed no conventional understanding that the owner of a horse should proclaim that a casualty had occurred to him, but leave such as might possess the secret to make the most of it, I ask, was the Turf then in a healthy condition? Was not the crisis of English racing fast approaching? The Doncaster St. Leger, for the last year, possessed two points of notice Grey Momus, who had been a leading feature in the betting on the race for some months before, was drawn at the eleventh hour; and out of a field in which, of the seven that started, each cantered in some fifty yards apart from the other, two only were placed by the judge. Leaving the application of those facts for another place, let us come at once to the "status in quo" of the Turf at this hour. Bloomsbury, the winner of the Derby, and Deception, second for that race, and the winner of the Oaks, are both objected to on the ground of pedigree. Put it that both are declared to have been improperly named, and what becomes of the greatest stakes in the country? Are they to be run for over again (a thing, however, impossible), or is each subscriber to withdraw his money? Certain rules and regulations have been published by the Jockey Club as a code of laws for the Turf: are these effective de facto, or merely operative, as it may suit the parties to whose cases they favourably apply? Do these rules actually regulate a horse's qualifications; and, in the event of the proprietor refusing to be governed by them, will the law treat them as authorities? To deal with the points of notice suggested in the last paragraph,— is it at the discretion of the judge to place only such horses in a race as may be entitled to a stake by the place awarded them? If otherwise, why was not Lanercost returned third for the last Leger, and Euclid for the last Derby? See how vitally important it may be in the latter case, and might be in the former. When the party who objected to the qualification of Bloomsbury for the Ascot Derby, and Two Hundred Sovereign Stakes, on the day fixed for going into the investigation before the Earl of Errol and the Stewards of the Jockey Club, formally" renounced any authority supposed to be derived from his acquiescence in their proceedings," did he not, being one of that body himself, establish a precedent whereby, in future, any man may scoff at their decisions, and take the chance of an appeal to a jury as conversant with horse-racing as with aerostation? A court of law is a strange place for the settlement of a question in horse lineage. "You stole my purse, Pat; I'll get twenty witnesses to swear they saw you take it. "And I'll get fifty to swear they did not," was the Irishman's logical rejoinder. Upon this principle the lawyers will deal with the goodly harvest of horse cases now waiting for the reapers. If the practice of appeal to special pleading, in all cases. connected with racing, be recognised, and the existing ordinances of the Jockey Club are to be received as the statute law, I do not think a Derby, Leger, Oaks, or any stake in the kingdom, will shew a list of nominations, one tithe of which will pass as qualified. Open the Racing Calendar, and read the Seventeenth Rule of the Jockey Club, "AS TO NOMINATIONS;" and if your plain sense enable you to make anything of its crude circumlocution (in a law court the readings will be exactly in the ratio of the advocates who may have the interpretation of it), at what conclusion do you arrive? That the wit of man could not have devised a more exquisite sop for the special pleader. If by the objection urged against Deception, she be declared disqualified by her nomination, what becomes of Don John's qualification for the Leger-the identity of whose dam is repudiated as a matter of course? But it were idle to multiply examples, and, as I hope, needless to impress more strongly by argument the vital necessity for a radical change in the rules and practice of the Turf. Why should a cry be raised against the owner of Ruby for drawing his horse after losing the first heat, for the Queen's Plate, at Hampton, and a total silence be observed when nominations by scores, heavily backed for months, are declared not to go at the eleventh hour? This fastidiousness in the smalls would be a farce were its consequences not too often tragical. Gentlemen of the Jockey Club! you are a self-elected body, with self-constituted powers. Unless public opinion go with and support you, your position is ridiculous, because your assumed authority will be a mockery. In all cases with dignity and impartiality assert your prerogative, and, as the exercise of it will be a general good, the general voice will declare for and uphold you. The present Turf system is rotten to the core revise it thoroughly. Let honour and fair dealing between man and man be the letter of your laws, and the spirit of their interpretation: so shall a National Sport, long a credit and boon to your country, flourish and prevail, and your firmness and decision turn to good the evils that have induced the present Crisis of English Racing. |