RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW. 103 



Thus it will be seen that the public trainer — and most 

 trainers are now more or less public — has no easy task to per- 

 form. It is to be hoped that he wishes to preserve his re- 

 spectability ; certainly he wishes to keep together and increase 

 his clientele^ and to make his fortune. He should indeed be 

 wise in his generation. In all that appertains to his craft he 

 must of course be an expert, studying and knowing the con- 

 stitutions, tempers, defects, and capabilities of his horses as if 

 they were his own children. 



He must be sober and vigilant, implicitly trusting no man 

 but himself, yet appearing to repose the frankest confidence in 

 his grooms, while he exercises the keenest supervision over 

 them. He must, if possible, keep his employers m good 

 humour, which means keeping them on the right side with 

 Messrs. Weatherby, the little man's selling plater requiring as 

 careful a preparation as, and a good deal more placing than, 

 the great man's crack two-year-old. He must be as discreet 

 as the family lawyer, and as candid as Job's comforters ; and 

 lastly, since whatever else he may or may not do he will most 

 assuredly bet, he must contrive so to regulate his investments 

 that he may neither excite alarm by his losses nor jealousy by 

 his winnings. 



Considering his bringing up, his temptations, and his op- 

 portunities, it is wonderful with what skill he usually contrives 

 se tirer d^affaire. One great advantage he certainly enjoys, he 

 is seldom the victim of misplaced confidence. 



' There's no an honest man in the world,' said the Scotch 

 merchant ; * a ken it by mysel'.' 



But if from * the ringing grooves of change ' has issued a new 

 and improved system of training, and a new (if not improved) 

 style of trainer, what shall be said of the revolution which has 

 been wrought in the character and conduct of the jockeys, 

 that body corporate of men and boys to whose skill, judgment, 

 and honesty is ultimately entrusted the issue of ail turf con- 

 tests, and who are, therefore, the arbiters of each racing man's 

 destiny ? 



