Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1878 — Horse-Racing in England. [ARTICLE]

Horse-Racing in England.

Betting, especially on race-courses, is largely on the increase. Whilst thirty or forty years ago there Were not, perhaps, more than 200 professional betting men. there are now probably 2,000, each of them doing a “roaring” business. No one can tell, with any approach to certainty, the amount Of money which changes hands upon the turf;' it is known to be enormous. The owner of the horse which won the Cesarewitch of last year was able to back it to win him £IOO,OOO. Another of the significant facts of the turf was lately stated in a popular magazine—the chief jockey of the period earns in fees as large an income as the Lord High Chancellor of England! Ahd his fees and presents are said to have amounted last year to over £13,000. In. all probability the three principal jockeys of England will earn, or, at all events, receive more money in a year than the whole professional staff’ of a modern university. The recent death of Admiral Rous and the public accession of "the Prince of Wales to the turf conspire to direct re* newed attention to the horse as an instrument of gambling. Horse-racing was once the “ sport of Kings.” and in

England will apparently become so again; but it baa sadly degenerated if it were the Innocent pastime which some assert it waa. Now it ia in aad want of reform, Hoeing, to qse a quaint quotation, that “theturf is daisy’d o’er with scandals.” The running of horses, ns we have tried to show, has become surrounded by all kinds of temptation; the horse is in the hands of gamblers. Gentlemen degrade themselves bv dirtying their hands with a betting-book. Men bribe, and stable boys become corrupt in consequence of the turf having been selected as one of tbe places where people* make haste to be rich. The elements of chicanery which now attend the pastime of horse-racing have given it a bad odor, and it would be a thousand times better that horse-racing should altogether cease than that the race-courses of Great Britain should continue to be seminaries of swindling! —Contemporary Review.