THE RACE JUDGE.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1891, 25 January 1875, Page 3

THE RACE JUDGE.

They still do some things better in Fnnwe than elsewhere ; but it is a question whether the remark yrill apply to the atP&ira of the racecourse. People who read the accounts given of races run in France must, unless they belong to the Linitiated, be surprised now and then to see Tftr&snounced that the Marquis de Chose or the Due do Oe-ne*sais-quoi " officiated as judge "or" as starter;" and they may fancy that thoso noblemen, having suffered reverses of fortune, are glad to turn their knowledge of the turf to. account by doing odd jobs,-and so turning an honest penny. But injustice would be done to the noble officiators, who give their services gratuitously. In fact, in France -Mill the officials of the turf are generally, Ij. not invariably, unpaid. In England we, as becomes pur national character, consider that he who receives pay incurs additional responsibility as well as liability ; J" and that if you be we'll served there is nothing like engaging somebody whose bread will depend upon his faithful service. Therefore we give salaries to such officials of the turf as:'; are . not, from their high position and the personal interest they have in the maintenance of authority, discipline, and integrity, likely to be sufficiently swayed by other considerations. For, the French to the contrary notwithstanding, it must surely appear to ordinary beings pretty clear, that, in matters 1 whichrequire above all things experience :and habituation, it is better to have professionals, who will make a special line their daily vocation , than amateurs who may one day be willing ip serve and; another unwilling, and ;of whom there may on Some particular occasion be such a dearth as to create a dead lock. Some, say that an amateur is more bound by honor than a professional is wont to be; but even if the statement be not open to challenge, it can be said,on theothfer hand, that there is less delicacy felt about inquiring into ; the cohdnet of a j^aid tha,n an unpaid" official, and that complaints which in the latter case would be only muttered, and perhaps ' never be satisfactorily investigated, are in the former, uttered with freedom and loudness, and if well founded, met with the proper amount ot attention. And if it be urged that there is no appeal against the decision o£ the judge, yet there is nothing much more certain than, that a judge who, by the common consent, gave a decision, that could only be accounted for on fraudulent grounds, would ; lose both his post and his character. And that is about as heavy security as reasonable creatures can require from one whose dutieis are performed before the eyes of tens of thousands. So we are content to have a judge without a handle to his name, and to pay him. And .verily he earns his pay. He may not have so much of that sheer worry that must sometimes make the "starter" wish that one manchild the less had been born into the World-; and yet the task of the judge, though performed in the twinkling of an eye, requires no common faculties* and may fcntail no small discomfort, It needs the eye of a hawk and continual practice to know at a glance a particular horse, a particular rider, a particular combination of colors, especially when, as often happens, two or more riders wear almost the" same colours, and may, at the last moment have their "mount" changed. Besides, not only does the judge have to designate the winner, he is expected also to *.* place " at least two others ; and authority declares that, should he omit to fulfil that expectation, those who had backer! certain horses for a " place " could not, though the animals they had backed came indisputedly second aod third, be admitted to have iron their money. The judge, moreover, is bound to exhibit more than Ordinary he|fe, decision, and indifference to clamour I for, should the race be a close thing between a publics favorite and an outsider, he is pretty certain, whatever his" decision may be, to have anathemas and accusations hurled at his head by scores of men and brethren who have not learned to bear disappointment, in. silence or to put a bridle upon their tongues, ile maYjif the finish beuncommonly close, get but of his difficulty by .declaring a dead heat; and in.this respect, perhaps, the English judge has the act^fitage of the French, form France an absurd practice prevails of proclaiming a hors^dhave wonby a ncse, which is unknown in England .as a measure of victory. Yet it may be urged, on the other haDd, that the .shorter the distance by .which a victory may bo legitimately #won, the greater is the chance that a declared dead heat was not legitimately. so declared. The judge,-again, must during the race, and especially at the end of it, keep his ears as impenetrably closed to sound and suggestion as those of the Odysseans to the song of the Sirens; else, it. comes to be a near thing, the - flouts of those whose wishes are fathers to their thoughts and utterances may cause his attention to wander, and even affect his senses. And whoever has attempted, from: front or rear on either side, to follow, in such places as are open to the public, the course of a well-con-tested race, and to name,: after a neck-and-neck" struggle, the absolute winner, will acknowledge that such eye-witness is extremely delusive, and will come to the conclusion that the judge, andnobpdy else, can be relied upon for the exact truth. It is difficult to describe; upon paper the arrangements made to render Him, if he only be a man of the necessary ability and probity, all but infallibility. Suffice it to say that, in the absence of miracles, his eye cannot fail to fall directly upon the winning post and catch-the veryfirst glimpse of the winner's headas.it shoots past between him and the goal/ Whether a mistake is ever made abbut the actual winner at our ordinary meeting nowatdajs may well be doubted, for all that grumblers mutter and all the strong language with which it was at tne time asserted that "Barbarian won the

Derby in 1852; but, so far as the horses " placed" are concerned, memory seems to call several eases of temporary and speedily rectified errors, and one in particular, when, if it be fair to trust; in mere remembrance of what happened 12 yeara ago, Rapid Rhone was for some minutes supplanted by a horse called Clarior, or some such name, as Ihird in the race for the Derby. A curious instance is reported as having occurred at one of the Australian race-meetings last May, when a handicap was supposed to have done so much credit to its framer that four horses ran a dead'heat for the first place. Howbeit, a horse had really won by half a length, but had come up so close to the judge's box that that important functionary did not observe him.—Pail Mall Gazette.