RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW. 105 



from all jockeys who are owners or part owners of racehorses, 

 or who notoriously bet on horse-races ' — Mr. J. Lowther at the 

 same time intimating that the stewards would use their dis- 

 cretionary power in favour of some few old jockeys who com- 

 bined the occupation of training and riding with the ownership 

 of horses. 



In the same year the stewards carried a motion enforcing 

 the registration of 'all partnerships, and the name of every 

 person having any interest in a horse.' 



The jockeys, however, had a real and genuine grievance 

 under which they had long suffered, apparently without hope of 

 redress, and which they alleged actually forced them into 

 betting as a means of obtaining their livelihood — viz. the with- 

 holding, or non-payment by owners, of the fees for winning and 

 losing mounts, wages in fact no doubt recoverable at law, but 

 from an appeal to which remedy, custom, or a fear of losing 

 custom, caused the riders to shrink. Therefore, in 1880 the 

 Jockey Club, at the mstigation of Mr. Craven and Mr. Alex- 

 ander, passed a rule enforcing the payment to the stakeholder 

 or clerk of the course of all fees to which the jockeys were 

 entitled, so rendering impossible either loss or delay in pay- 

 ment of legitimate earnings. 



Thus all ground of complaint, all plea for the necessity of 

 betting on the part of jockeys, seems to have been removed, 

 while the new powers, together with the power previously in- 

 vested in the stewards of granting or withholding jockeys' 

 licences at Newmarket, would appear at first sight amply suf- 

 ficient to attain the desired end. 



But has the end been attained? Has this enormous evil 

 of jockeys owning horses and betting immoderately been sup- 

 pressed ? Nay, has it even been scotched ? Is it not, on the 

 contrary, openly asserted that there exists at this moment a 

 regular 'backing club,' consisting of jockeys, trainers, touts, and 

 betting men, who compare notes, and decide on the morning 

 of the races what to 'go for ' in each event they consider worthy 

 of their attention ? 



