racers, Sharper and Mina, contended, against the most celebrated Cossack horses from the Don, the Black Sea, and the Ural, in a race of the cruel distance of forty-seven miles. At starting Sharper and Mina ran away with their riders more than a mile, and up a very steep hill, where the latter horse broke down and consequently was pulled up. Half the distance was run in an hour and forty minutes. In the last half, only one of the many Cossack horses that started was able to contend with Sharper, who, notwithstanding every foul advantage was taken by changing the weight, and even dragging along his opponent with a rope, won his race in gallant style, performing the distance in two hours and forty-eight minutes. At starting the English horses carried three stone more weight than the Cossacks; and during the last half of the race, the one Cossack that remained in it was ridden by a mere child.

THE HALF-BRED HORSE OR COCK-TAIL.

We will conclude this chapter with a brief notice of a second rate description of racer, of comparatively modern origin, and lately very prevalent in England, with the exception of Newmarket ;-the half-bred horse, or as he is commonly termed the cock-tail. This description of race horse has never found favor in the eyes of the nobility and gentry,

the real supporters of the Turf; and for very good

reasons.

In the first place, what are termed half-bred stakes (some of which are of large value) have led to a great many frauds being committed, as horses have been brought to run for them, under false pedigrees and false age; which must ever be the case, from the great difficulty of proving a horse to be thorough bred, where the owner, for his own dishonest purposes, has carefully removed all traces of his origin. We find therefore that for the most part, cock-tails are in the hands of third rate trainers, horse dealers, and what are called at the present day, gentlemen riders, and that continual disputes and unpleasantness arise out of half-bred stakes,-frequently to the disgust of a genuine sportsman, who may by chance happen to have entered a horse for the same stake. Besides this the breeding of these horses is a direct injury to the country, as it encourages a spurious breed of horses, instead of the blood horse, the great object of racing. Were what are now called cock-tail stakes only used for what they were originally intended, viz. for hunters, there would be no reason to complain. Real hunters' stakes would be advantageous, if open to all horses that had been regularly hunted for a season, (not merely ridden by a boy to see a fox found, or cantered on the road to see a stag taken) and giving no allowance to the cock

tail; and if this practise was followed in all other stakes throughout the country, we should soon have the satisfaction of seeing this eyesore

of real sportsmen, and blot on racing, done away with.

CHAPTER VI.

Rules concerning Horse-racing in general-Rules and Orders of the Jockey Club-Admission of New Members of the Jockey ClubRules for the Rooms-Nominations, &c., &c.-Present Members of the Jockey Club-Adjudged Cases-The Law of Horse-racing and of Wagers thereon-Colors at present worn by the Riders.

RULES CONCERNING HORSE RACING IN GENERAL, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF A POST AND HANDICAP MATCH.

Ar a meeting of the Members of the Jockey Club held 25th April, 1833, it was resolved that from, and after the end of the year 1833, horses should be considered at Newmarket as taking their ages from the 1st of January, instead of the 1st of May.

With respect to other places, they will continue to be considered as taking their ages from the 1st of May, until the stewards of those races shall order otherwise.

Four inches are a hand.

Fourteen pounds are a stone.

1. Catch weights are, each party to appoint any person to ride without weighing.

2. Give-and-take-plates are, fourteen hands to carry stated weights, according to age; all above,

or under to carry extra, or be allowed the proportion of seven pounds to an inch.*

3. A Post Match, is to insert the ages of the horses in the article, and to run any horse of that age, without declaring what horse till he come to the post to start.

4. A Handicap Match is, A. B. and C. to put an equal sum each, into a hat; C, who is the handicapper makes a match for A. and B., who when they have perused it, put their hands into their pockets, and draw them out closed; then they open them together, and if both have money in their hands, the match is confirmed, if neither have money it is no match. In both cases the handicapper draws all the money out of the hat; but if one has money in his hand, and the other none, then it is no match; and he that has money in his hand is entitled to the deposit in the hat.

5. Horses are not entitled to start without producing a proper certificate of their age, if required, at the time appointed in the articles, except where aged horses are included, and in that case a junior horse may enter without a certificate as to age, provided he carry the same weight as the aged.

6. No person shall start more than one horse of which he is the owner, either wholly or in part, and either in his own name or that of any other person, for any race for which heats are run.

* These plates, so much the fashion up to the commencement of the present century, have now fallen out of use.