A Mirror of the Turf; Or, The Machinery of Horse-Racing Revealed, Showing the Sport of Kings as It Is To-DayBertram, James Glass
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A Mirror of the Turf; Or, The Machinery of Horse-Racing Revealed, Showing the Sport of Kings as It Is To-Day
Bertram, James Glass
Horse racing -- Great Britain
As to the cry, which has been already referred to, of "down with
sport," it is most unjust, and is probably seen to be so, even by
the more ignorant of those to whom it was first addressed. "Down
with sport," would mean the loss of daily bread to thousands who are
employed in stables and in agriculture. Training stables cannot be
built without masons, carpenters, and other workmen. Horse clothes
employ our weavers, and harness-making gives remunerative employment
to hundreds. The farrier in his forge feels all the better for there
being 10,000 race-horses in the country, helpers in stables do not go
without clothes, and racing grooms and jockeys will annually require,
at least, 15,000 suits. Horses are fed on the best of oats and hay, and
to provide this forage, two or three thousand persons will contribute
a share of their labour. Important race meetings attract myriads of
spectators, and so our railways flourish, and our hotel-keepers and
their servants thrive. Over one million sterling is earned every year
by servants and others who are dependent on the great national pastime
of horse-racing. I am taking, in the foregoing remarks, sport as I find
it. Some people will say that the oats eaten by horses would be better
if given to men as food; but that mode of argument can be made to go
in a circle. Men must have recreation, and nothing will prevent them
picking out the pastime they like best. So much for the cry of "down
with sport."
BUSINESS OF HORSE-RACING:
OFFICERS OF THE TURF.
I.
Very few of the many thousands who annually assemble on the breezy
downs of Epsom to gaze upon the fierce contest which takes place for
the "Blue Ribbon" of the turf, or who witness the Cup races at Ascot,
have even a rudimentary idea of the "business," the real "work," in
fact, which is incidental to horse-racing. They have never been behind
the scenes, and have had no opportunity of becoming acquainted with the
economy of a racing stable, or the labour and anxiety which pertain
to training race-horses; nor do they care anything about strains of
racing blood, they know nothing whatever about the sires or dams of
the animals which win or lose the races on which they gaze with such
interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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