148 RIDING 



somewhat similar fashion. There is little or no time to retrieve 

 errors and rectify the results of carelessness in a race on a five 

 furlong course, and seeing how few are the inches which make 

 all the difference between defeat and victory, it is obvious 

 that the slightest advantage gained or lost may decide the 

 event. 



As the horse must be ready to start, so he must be pulled 

 together, 'steadied,' or 'balanced,' for a particular effort. Sud- 

 denly to apply whip or spur to a horse that is beginning to tire 

 is certain to have the effect of making him sprawl. It was 

 held to be one of the peculiar merits of the late George Fordham 

 that he never asked a horse for an effort until he had so prepared 

 the animal that he was ready to make it, and the result of 

 Fordham's final ' steady ' has pulled many races out of the fire 

 and snatched them from riders who had fondly supposed that 

 the victory was as good as won. 



How to make the rush is one thing, when to make it is 

 another. A.n illustration of what is meant may be quoted. Not 

 long since one of the few real masters of the whole art and mystery 

 of jockeyship waited till he thought the moment had arrived, and 

 after just steadying his horse flashed past the judge's box so 

 nearly level with another horse that it was impossible to see 

 which had won; but he did not quite ' get up ' and was beaten 

 a neck. It is a very common, indeed, almost a general thing, to 

 abuse the rider of the second especially is this done by those 

 who have lost their money and there was the usual grumbling 

 over the result. 



' If your jockey had only come a moment sooner ! ' a backer 

 who had lost his bet said mournfully to the owner of the second, 

 an exceptionally good judge of horses and riders. ' You were 

 only beaten a bare neck ! ' 



' If my jockey had come a moment sooner, instead of being 

 beaten a neck I should have been beaten half a length,' was 

 the reply ; and the grumbler found that this was the opinion of 

 others as well as of the beaten jockey, a rider whose verdict in 

 such a case might be most implicitly depended upon. Much 



