HANDICAPPING (FROM THE YEOMAN.")

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVIII, Issue 1634, 16 October 1862, Page 4

HANDICAPPING (FROM THE YEOMAN.")

There is scarcely a leading question in tin f politics upon which the mind of the sporting public is more divided than upon the general expediency of giving a gieater shaic of prominence to handicap laces or to weight for-age races ; and theie are many of the best and truest fi iends of the noble spnrt who look with disti nit— if not with aversion — on any system which has for its chief merit that it is supposed to equalizo the chances of the best and the woist. Wo do not go the length of these gentlemen in objecting to handicaps— chiefly because we do not bobeve that any good handic.ii) will be unjust to horses of the fii st class, and the latter can afl'oiil, if m good racing condition, lo give away lumps of weight to inferior cattle And, aftei all, if the mattei be closely examined, it is not so much to the abstrict pi oimsition of a handicap that exception is taken as to the possible abuse of it Wo aio piepaied to concede to these objectois, for whoso opinions we h.ive gre.it lespccr, that where the weights aie imposed unfairly the consequences aie moie injurious than any that could anse fiom the weight foi ago system being maintained in its integiity ; and it will be oni business to assist theii views by commenting tioely upon any handicaps which appeals to us lo be defective fiomwantnfinfoimation, 01 to have been concocted for a special purpose ; and we shall do this with an unspaung hand. But in oider that we may show omselves consistent, we sli.ill shoitly state the principles upon which a public handicappcr should bo guided. Our grumblings may, thoiefoic, at any futuie time be bi ought under the measuio of the standard we ouiselves adopt, and aie lesolved to stand by. The basis of a just handicap will be the intention to place all the hoi scs entered on an equal footing, so far as the meio allowance or imposition of weight will affect their i mining. The staitimr-point of a handicap should be the placing horses of the best class m the eutiy at not exceeding their weight for aye. with small giaduated concessions to those who have fallen shoib of the actual picmicifelup, but aie still entitled to be ieckoucd as of the same degi cc. The scale of weight for age adopted by the club should be, as a gcnojal rule, adopted ; but it may be found advisable, if foi nothing moi c than vai lety's sake, to adopt in some mces a scale lower than our piesent veiy seveie one But year by year, until this is abandoned, the meat handicap of the mooting should be uniform in fixing its maximum and minimum. Now, as to the handicappci's estimate of the capi bihties of vinous hoises, their pi eviouspei foi minces m public will afford him a gencial guide ; heie his woik leally begins and thcie aie many considerations which should guide him, of which we notice — First, he must obseivo the qualifications of each hoise over various distances, and he should iemembei that one hoi se may be able to give away weight to almost all comeis at a mile 01 tluee quaitei-. of a mile, who would be lost in the lear at the end of a thiee miles' race ; at all distances between half a mile and tin cc miles hoises have special qualifications, and it is only the hist of the fust class who aie equally good ovei eithei shoitoi long journeys Secondty, in making concessions of weight, the handicappei should know the actual encumstances undoi which piovious defeats weie mcuticd Was the hoise intended' was he fit' was the giounrl haul or heavy ' and how did this affect him ? what defeated him. on whatteims, and what was behind him '' how wa 1 . the lace 11111, and did the pace suit him, ni did it beat him 9 did any disappointment oeeui m the race, and was he honestly and model atcly well ncldcn' and lastly, what soit of a lace was it— was there any, and what, pace m it' The eonveise of all these piopositions will apply to the hoi so who is conceding weight, and the piactical application of the theory comes to this, —Aie the circumstance of the coming lace, so far as can be ascertained, such that what has occimed furnishes a lehable guide to the next event ' The handicapping "dvik" hoises— that is, those who have never yet appeared on the tuif, or onl\ as two-yeai olds, or only ovei shoit d. stances — is always a bugbear to stewaid«, who have no defined plan on which to proceed , but it appeals to us that the mle which should govern such cases is, that all "daik " horses should be assumed to be vci y good, and handicapped accoidingly. For it should be lemembeted, that an allowance of weight is a concession made to hoi ses whose inferiority is pi oved, just as a penalty of extia weight is sometimes imposed on a hoise who has established his claim of supoiiouty. The two cases are pi ccisely analagous, and to proceed upon any other footing is neither moie nor less than guessing at probabilities Now, supposing the foregoing theoiy to be sound, and assuming that it would be acted upon in a fui and intelligent spit it, would the objectois to hindi cans on geueial giounds insist on returning to the old system of weight for-age races, without admix--tuie of the mote speculative events > We believe it is chiefly because these piopositions an> not earned out, and because they see the handicap system abused tlnough cupidity, 01 stupidity, 01 ill natuie, that they object to it. ITeie is an example "f the abuse of the system :—ln: — In a handicap! ace now bofoie the public, Mr Chiniside's filly Regina is weighted to be the very best hoise in the countiy at a mile and a-half and a distance She has to gi\e weight (211),) to Moi mon, who gives away weight to e\ery otlfer hor-e in the lace, including a filly who beat him last year, and to whom he is now m ulo to give 101b , on their telative dift'cience of weights for ago But a moie offensive exhibition of handicapping paitiality, or ignoiance, is to be found in the case of an animal well known upon the tin f of Victona, who has now inn in public foi two seasons- The name of the qnadi uped need not be given, though probably the tacts may enable the leadei to tiace out the do tails of the nai t ativc \ man of small means, and vet too independent to be the liistiument of the pi evading faction, bi ought out a veiy neat, undei sized, useful nag, of good pedigree and sound constitution, and after running tw ice ot thrice on the Melbourne coin so, wheio his insignificant apneuance was the cause of much ninth to two eelebiated hoise-bieedeis, the colt made a thud attempt m a subuiban locality, and won a Maiden Plate, boating a veiy mndciarc lot. After this, he tiavelled to " the county tow n of Giant," wheie he was honouied by the handicappers weighting him to be the veiy best hoise m the colony, and made to give odds to everything, cany ing moie than his own weight foi age, while all othei s had pounds taken off them. The next steps in the little nag's caiecr call for no notice, except that his owner, finding himself shut out from all hopes of miccoss in handicaps, while the hoise's want of swe made his piusuit of highei honours hopeless, was compelled to sell him. He passed into the hands of a clever party, who knew how to woik handicaps. The lesult of this change of owneiship was, that at four ycais old he had less to cany than at tlneeyeais old in the hands of his bleeder; at five yeais old he is still as lightly ticafed, and, win or lose, the small heio has become a souice of certain and regular pi ofit. " Let mo know what will be the favounto for the Derby, and I don't want to know what will be the winner!" was the remaik of avotoinn of the English turf at a Christmas spoiling dinner. The meaning of the well-seasoned turfite was obvious ; it was a ceitain and lcadygaia to him to be able to back the hoi so at long odds, which he could at any time thereafter (before the lace) hedge at a good piofit So it is with unfair handicappei s and their party They may not be able to ascertain exactly how much injustice will bo equal to shutting out the chances of their opponents : they are ceitainly not able to control tho accidents of training and the contingencies of health and condition in their own animals ; but they can always, by giving themselves and their friends "a strong pull" in the weights, put the owneis of tho favoured horses in tins position -that they can "milk" them in the betting market, or, failing this operation, they can win the race ; aud then, after running off once or twice, the same animals come up again, to be favoured at the expense of others, and so the "clover" manage] s keep the piofitablo ball i oiling their way as long as they please, and as long as the public will tolerate their selfish (and almost fraudulent) misrule.