404 RACE RIDING. 



may turn out a rank duffer which is unable to go fast, so that 

 the jockey, by waiting on him, may have, in the meantime, 

 allowed the others to get so far ahead that he will not be able 

 to catch them before it is too late ; or he may run himself 

 to a standstill in endeavouring to keep the lead all through. 

 If a jockey be capable of carrying out minute instructions, he 

 will certainly be clever enough to accomplish the far easier 

 and more profitable task of acting up to the spirit of broad 

 general directions. As a rule, it is much better to ride a 

 race so as to suit the capabilities of one's own horse (with 

 which one ought to be fully acquainted), than to devote one's 

 entire attention to the weak points of the supposed dangerous 

 horse or horses, which must naturally be problematical. For 

 this reason, I would never hamper a jockey's judgment by 

 laying out the programme cut and dry ; but would simply 

 tell him my horse's peculiarities, and what kind of running 

 would most likely bring him home. For instance, with a 

 fast horse in a one-and-a-half-mile race, instead of telling 

 an inexperienced rider to wait so many lengths behind, 

 I might say, " Get off well, if you can ; settle down into 

 a steady pace, and if you are all going fast, don't mind 

 about the others getting a bit ahead. When you have gone 

 about half the journey, gradually begin to creep up, so as to 

 get at the distance post within a couple of lengths of the 

 horses which are going strongest in front of you ; take a pull 

 for a few strides if you find your horse at all distressed, and 

 make your effort the moment you think you can get home." 

 If the animal then gets beaten, the probability is that the 

 winner was the better horse of the two at the weights and 

 distance run a fact which owners of defeated horses often 

 overlook. 



If I remember rightly, it was that very successful turf 

 operator, Mr. F. Swindells, who replied to a jockey that asked 

 him how he was to ride his horse : " Nay, lad, that is thy 



