ii8 RACE RIDING. 



On the Use of the Whip.— When hands and spurs 

 fail to make a horse go fast enough to win" his race, 

 we may use the whip, if it be a very " near thing," to 

 squeeze the last ounce out of the horse. Horses, when 

 ridden by a workman, will undoubtedly, under the whip, 

 make a last effort which cannot be obtained by any 

 other means of punishment. This effort, speaking in 

 general terms, may make a difference of a length, 

 perhaps even of two lengths, in some rare cases. Recol- 

 lecting the risk we run of spoiling a horse's temper for 

 the rest of his life by flogging him, we may take it for 

 granted that we should not use the whip, if we have to 

 trust to it to make up more than two lengths to secure 

 the judge's verdict. A horse, as Mr. Edwin Martin, the 

 well-known Newmarket trainer, once remarked to me, 

 cannot, at the end of a race, go farther than a hundred 

 yards at his very utmost speed without beginning to 

 shorten his stride and go slower ; hence we may con- 

 clude that our last resource, the whip, should not be used 

 until we are within a hundred yards of the winning post. 

 Practically speaking, the whip should be very rarely 

 indeed " picked up " before the last thirty or forty 

 yards, nor should more than two or three cuts be given. 

 When a jockey begins to flog, as many of them do, two 



