WOOD v COX.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7141, 31 August 1888, Page 3

WOOD v COX.

Referring; to the recent turf action the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic Neics cays :— " The trial has given ' superior people' a great opportunity for Ringing little sarcasms at the turf, and all who are connected with or even interested in it. Is there, I wonder, any business or calling about which a man who wants to be derisive cannot find something to say? Politics 1 Self-seeking under the guise of patriotism ; an attempt to Rain personal importance and social consideration under the pretence of serving the country. Poetry? Rubbish. Stringing jangling rhymes together expYessing old ideas that have frequently been better put. Art? We know how Clive Newcome was derided as a painter and glazier, and, indeed; there are numberless sarcasms ready at hand to cast at the artist. Music ? Singing can always becalledshoutingoraqualling; is there not something contemptuous in calling a man a fiddler ? and as for instrumental pieces, the works of the transcendental school can be dismissed as Incoherent noise, and the melodist spoken of as a stringer together of thin tunes which have Deen composed before. Some stupid but not wholly ineffective sneer can be directed against science in all its branches, and, to come to comparative trivialities, there is no sport or pastime that can escape. We can speak of cricket as playing ball, ignoring the whole art and ingenuity of the game; football we can dismiss as a boyish romp; and chapters could be written about the childish frivolity of golf. SoVith racing. We can ignore the breeder's judgment which produces the thoroughbred horse as he is when found at his best, beautiful in his eymmetry, unrivalled throughout the world for speed, gifced with indomitable courage, yet mila in disposition; we can overlook the trainer's skill andexparlonce, by which the horse Is sent to the startingpost in the fullest health and vigour, with all its capacities at their best; and'we can deride the exquisite art of horsemanship by which the animal Is enabled to utilise its utmost powers to the fullest extent for the attainment of the object which the rider has in view. Eager to exert himself, the horse's energy must be restrained, and that without irritating him or weakening him by causing him to fight for the freedom of his head; he must be allowed to gallop almost at his top speed, and yet the rider must keep an effort for the climax of the struggle, and, perhaps the great art of all, he must know to the fraction of a second just when the supreme effort has to be made. The more one understands of the art the more pleasure is derived from it—from such a race, for example, aa that) between Ossory and Galore at Ascot the other day; but of course we can be contemptuous about the worship of the horse, the demoralising atmosphere of the turf, the fuss made about the jockey, who, as many worthy people suppose, flogs his horse hardest and so comes In first—the worthy people never supposing that the whip loses far more races than it wins. There are still, happily, multitudes of Englishmen who have a wholesome affection for the turf, and take a keen interest in racing from genuine love of sport."