Games and sports within the Act.

III. What are “lawful games, sports, or pastimes or exercises” within the Act?

Horse-racing.

The question can be best answered by showing what games are unlawful either at Common Law or by statute. Some have a history. Thus horse-racing was for a long time subjected to considerable restriction. It will be remembered that by the Statute of Anne, section 5, it was made penal to win any sum over £10 at any one time, by means of gaming. It was always understood that horse-racing, which was expressly mentioned in the Statute of Charles II., was a game within the Statute of Anne, the games in both statutes being the same.[[221]] The result was, as is shown in Evans v. Pratt[[222]], that a horse-race for a prize of over £10 was held to be illegal. Curiously enough, in Applegarth v. Colley, an entirely different construction was put upon those statutes by the Court of Exchequer; it being there held that the statutes did not affect a case (1) where the stakes were deposited with a stakeholder before the race was run, the statutes aiming at gaming on credit and “contracts for the payment of money won at gaming;” (2) where the stakes were made up of subscriptions under the value of £10, the term winner of £10 only contemplating a case where there was a corresponding loser of that sum. However, by the time that this case was decided, all restrictions on horse-racing had been wiped off the statute books: so that this more lenient construction of the earlier prohibitive statutes came rather late.

The immediate result of the statutes was that a large number of races were started for small prizes under £10, so as not to infringe the Act, a practice which tended to deteriorate rather than improve the breed of horses. |13 Geo. II., c. 19.| To remedy this the Statute 13 George II., c. 19, was passed, which prohibited any horse-race being run except at Newmarket or Blackhambleton in Yorkshire, for any prize of less value than £50. It also prescribed some arbitrary regulations as to the weights which horses of certain age should carry. The object, of course, of this statute was to prevent horse-races being run where the prize was not sufficiently remunerative to encourage the improvement of the breed. |18 Geo. II., c. 34.| The Statute 18 George II., c. 34, repealed so much of the previous statute as related to the carrying of weights, but the other provisions of 13 George II., c. 19, which restricted the practice of horse-racing, remained in force until the passing of 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35. |3 & 4 Vict., c. 35.| By this statute all the enactments of 13 George II., c. 19, relating to horse-racing, were repealed. |Evans v. Pratt.| In Evans v. Pratt[[223]] a question was raised as to the exact effect or result of this statute. The plaintiff sued to recover the stakes of a steeplechase “across country,” of which he had been declared winner. The main point was whether such a steeplechase for a prize of more than £10 was within the Statutes of Charles II. and Anne. It was argued on the one hand, that by the repeal of the earlier Statute of George II., without mentioning the statutes of Charles II. and Anne, the law as it existed under the latter was virtually restored, and, therefore, that a race for £10 was illegal. On the other hand, it was contended that the restrictions on horse-racing contained in the Statutes of Charles II. and Anne were repealed by 13 George II., c. 19, which substituted other provisions; and that the repeal of the latter statute had given “a new charter to horse-racing.” |All horse-racing made legal.| The Court held that the Statute 3 and 4 Vict., c. 35, had legalised all horse-racing, and that steeplechases were included in that term.

42 & 43 Vict., c. 18. Horse races near London require a license.

The only restriction in modern times to which horse-racing has been subjected is in the case of races within ten miles of London, the increase of which had been productive of great inconvenience.

By 42 and 43 Vict., c. 18, it is provided—

By section 1, a horse-race is in substance defined to be any competition between horses, or any race against time for any prize or any wager in respect of any such horse, at which more than 20 persons shall be present.

Section 2 makes all horse-races within 10 miles from Charing Cross unlawful unless licensed.