THE TURF AND SOME REFLECTIONS 



occasionally finds the leading horses swerving from 

 distress ; but it is very doubtful indeed whether 

 the accomplished riders of former times would, 

 under these conditions, have been more successful 

 in keeping a straight course than the much-abused 

 jockeys of the present day. An obscurantist patron 

 of the Turf may talk bravely of the advantage 

 of the old style. Let him go to his trainer in the 

 paddock before an important race when the wind 

 blows freshly down the Rowley mile some October 

 afternoon. Let him suggest to the trainer that 

 his jockey should let his stirrup leathers down 

 some holes and should sit upright in the saddle. 

 The trainer would reply : " Very well, my lord, 

 but you are giving 5 lb. away to the others." No 

 one is so foolish as to contend that the present 

 style, in the case of some exponents of it, is not 

 open to criticism ; that apprentices and light- 

 weights do not show at times to disadvantage 

 just as the tiny midgets of the past did when the 

 older jockeys crowded them out at the fall of the 

 flag or squeezed them on to the rails. But the 

 continued vigilance of the Stewards and the due 

 enforcement of penalties will certainly lead to 

 more careful riding in public, and will make it 

 incumbent on trainers, where their apprentices are 

 concerned, to see that they are well practised in 

 riding and at the gate before they appear in the 

 weighing-room in the glory of colours. 



It is undeniable that the evidence of considerable 

 betting by a trainer of horses produced a very 

 unfavourable impression on the public mind. The 

 combination of trainer and semi-professional backer 

 is not a wholesome one. It is calculated to create 



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