Related article: ranging nominally from £j^o to ^80. The cost to owners of run- ning their horses is altogether out Thioridazine Price of proportion to the money to be won, so the natural inference must be that the jumping game has an excellent body of sportsmen for its patrons. But its reputation is not at all in keeping with what one would expect the sequel to be, and every year we find the National Hunt Committee im- plored to exert itself in improving things. What is roundly averred is that horses are systematically pulled and all manner of collusion indulged in. Given the desire to do wrong, I presume the jumping game affords better opportunity than flat racing. Plenty of people make a living out of the winter season under N.H. Rules, and, seeing what it costs to train Purchase Thioridazine Online horses and convey them to and from the racecourses, it is almost obvious that it cannot be done out of the stakes won. I have been many times assured by people most likely to know and much interested personally that, if larger stakes were systematically given, more owners would be tempted to keep steeplechasers and hurdleracers. Whether the realisation of this would result in larger attendances is problematical, and it is just the problem that clerks of the course would like to see solved for them beforehand. Our steeplechasing takes place at the worst time of the year for the spectator, and no attraction would draw in the winter months the numbers that attend at other seasons of the year. If stakes are to be in- creased it must be by a combined general movement. Giving a big prize now and then is merely throwing money away. For the hurdleracing no one has any sym- pathy, it being a variant ot sport that most people who indulge in it are ashamed of. But it often receives more attention from executives than steeplechasing. An instance was afforded at the Sandown December meeting, Thioridazine Tablets where the chief hurdle race was for a stake of j^3oo, and the chief steeplechase (dubbed ** great," save the mark) for one of /200. What one would like to see would be the institution all over the country of steeplechases with stakes of from £300 to ;^5oo. Two steeplechases of the nominal value of ^500 have been held this season, and in each case we saw out the winner of the Grand National of 1898, the winner of both races being the most promis- ing young chaser of the day, Hid- den Mystery. We are told that winning such races endangers a horse's chance for the great steeplechase of the year, people talking as if, in the first place, it was the only race worthy the attention of owners of Order Thioridazine Online steeple- 58 BAILY S MAGAZiNB. [January chasers ; and, secondly, as though Purchase Thioridazine handicappers made it impossible for a previous winner to win the Grand National. In no race is greater consideration paid to top- weights than in this one, and in none, as has been proven, have they better chance of winning. I will not go so far as to say that the handicappers of this particular race pass sleepless nights, but I know they worry themselves and each other a good deal by day. Other people worry them, too, handicappers having a great deal to put up with from dissatisfied owners, to which, I contend, they should not be subjected, whilst the Press they always have with them. Racing officials, I am sur- prised to find, read and take to heart criticisms that appear upon their doings. This seems a great mistake, especially on the part of sensitive people, and I understand that the official handicapper lost all appetite for his dinner the day before the Cambridgeshire by reason of the strictures that were made on the handicapping of Oban, who, in the sequel, turned out to be even worse than the handicapper painted him. The Prince of Wales's Steeplechase at Sandown, run in February, is made a stake of ;^2oo, nominal, so that no penalty is entailed upon the winner at Liverpool. I am quite prepared to listen to the argument that the conditions of the Grand National Order Thioridazine will bear re- vision when the desire manifests itself to bring about a general improvement of steeplechasing. In the meantime, if the Sandown race were made one of ;f5oo, the winner might feel consoled for Buy Thioridazine Online having a few pounds put on his back. A system which reduces the whole steeplechase season to a one-race affair is a bad one, and one is glad to see that those who have the management of Hidden Mystery make the most of the present and leave the future to look after itself. What is wanted is more inducements of the nature of the Grand Sefton and Great Midland Handicap Steeplechases. Possibly we should then have more ** Grand National Horses," as the term goes. The chief interest at Sandown was in the flat races. On the first day we had a match in the old style. Sir John Thursby, with Palmerston, throwing down the gauntlet to Mr. A. Gold's Villiers, winner of the whip. The match was to be over the Beacon Course distance of 4 miles i furlong and 77 yards, and it was for ;^i,ooo a side. Having seen Villiers stay the Beacon Course, and not being aware that Buy Cheap Thioridazine his easy victory was much Buy Thioridazine simplified by the break- ing down of his opponent, Cano- pus, people felt inclined to favour his chance. Palmerston is the six-year-old horse which Sir J. B. Maple's people could do nothing with, and which was therefore sold. Sir J. Thursby was the buyer, Mr. Thursby having satis- fied himself that bad training, and not lack Thioridazine Hydrochloride of merit, was the fault, and the sequel has been that Palmerston won four races oflf the reel. He was lucky to get home this time, for he broke down rather badly directly after passing the post. The race has been none too kindly criticised, the suggestion being that contests of this length are a form of cruelty to animals. But we hear nothing of this sort in connection with the Grand National, the distance of which is three furlongs farther than the Beacon Course, to say nothing of the fences being the stiffest in the kingdom. Usually we see the Grand National called a magnificent spectacle. Why, then, should a four-miles fiat race be cruelty to animals ? It is 1900.) ' OUR VAN. 59 such, undoubtedly, if the com-