The principal officials required for the conduct of a race meeting are a clerk of the course, a handicapper, a starter, and a judge. The clerk of the course receives--it is his chief duty--the entries for the different races, and also takes charge of the correspondence and general clerical business which pertains to a race meeting. This functionary is usually the mainspring of the meeting, he may, however, be "the hired servant" of the proprietors of the racecourse; in reality his position is dependent on how meetings he is connected with may be constituted. In addition to a clerk of the course, there may also be a "clerk of the scales": that is, a person entrusted with the important duty of weighing out and weighing in the jockeys, before and after riding, and seeing that each rider carries the exact weight apportioned to him. The handicapper is an important functionary. Clerks of the course often officiate in the capacity of handicappers, or adjusters of the weights; sometimes, too, the office of handicapper and judge are combined; indeed, at some race meetings, the whole three offices are occasionally conjoined in one person; in theatrical parlance, the clerk of the course very often "doubles" the office of judge and handicapper. During a race meeting lasting over three or four days, the handicapper finds plenty of work, as, in addition to having apportioned weights to all the horses engaged in the larger handicaps, nurseries, and sweepstakes, many days, in some cases months, before the date of the meeting, he has to adjust the weights for those races which are run from day to day, for which horses are not entered till the evening before the day on which they are to run. A handicapper must be resourceful and ever on the alert, ready on every opportunity to display, in practical fashion, his abounding knowledge of the qualities and previous achievements of horses, so as to be able to place the various animals on an equality in an overnight handicap. Race meetings are largely dependent on "the go" and ability of the person engaged as handicapper, because owners and trainers are a rather jealous class, and quite able to detect at once, and resent, by withdrawal of their horses for the race, and their non-entry in future contests, any flagrant instance of favouritism. At some race meetings, perhaps, as many as fifty separate weights will have to be adjusted, from day to day, during the progress of sport, besides those assigned to horses in standing events before racing began.