Bredin on Running & Training

THE GOVERNING BODY. 105 with the mass of runners. No handicapper is likely to be so regarded who makes a practice of pulling men back, instead of increasing their starts, when he feels morally certain they did not try to win, by close observation of the race or races for which he has allotted the starts. As long as handicappers depend very largely, if not solely (in some instances), on their handicapping fees to provide their annual income, it stands to reason that no man to whom this money is an important object is likely to make himself unpopular by incurring the dislike of the non-tryers, and con– sequently lessening his employment by the secretaries of sports. If the A. A. A. instituted a committee of their own, composed of those handicappers to whom they now grant licences, and instructed secretaries to send the list of entrants in open races direct to the Association, who would return the handicaps without stating by whom they were formed, this would prevent "touting" for business, and would enable the starts to be allotted without fear or favour. However, there are no doubt many objections that could be easily raised to such a scheme, or in respect to most others, until men undertake handicapping as an amusement and to aid the sport, as is the case with one of the oldest members of the A. A. A., who in my time made it a practice to reduce or refuse to accept any r muneration for his trouble from clubs who found it difficult to make two ends meet financially. Since amateur athletics have taken a hold on the public, the whole concern has developed into a business which is kept going by the money the public pay to witness the sport. The goYerning body is to a great