RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW 105 



Can it be denied or ignored that at this present time there 

 are left among us but some three or four jockeys of the old 

 school men who have never during their long career staked 

 on their greatest achievements a tithe of the sum which our dis- 

 solute modern urchins wager on a selling-race, being therein 

 aided and abetted by certain low fellows, not always of the 

 baser sort ; and that this evil has increased to an extent which 

 has rendered necessary the steps which at last have been taken 

 to check it ? 



In 1879, Mr. Craven, who was then a steward of the 

 Jockey Club, brought forward a motion forbidding jockeys to 

 ride at Newmarket or elsewhere unless they had previously, by 

 application at the Registry Office, obtained a licence from the 

 stewards, and making suspension for the jockey and a fine of 

 257. for the trainer the consequence of knowingly infringing 

 this rule ; and Mr. Craven furthermore proposed that, ' should 

 it be satisfactorily proved to the Stewards of the Jockey Club 

 that any licensed jockey is the owner or part owner of race- 

 horses, or that he is in the habit of betting, they shall use their 

 discretion as to with drawing such jockey's licence.' 



' Any person proved to have betted for or with any jockey 

 on races may be warned off Newmarket Heath.' 



The first part of this rule applying to the issue of licences 

 was carried, but the penal clauses as to betting, &c., were 

 rejected, mainly in consequence of certain jockeys threaten- 

 ing, in the event of their being passed, to retire from the pro- 

 fession. 



The effect of this leniency was instantaneous. A class of 

 gambling jockeys at once bought horses, and so played the 

 game that it became impossible for an owner to be sure that 

 the rider he had engaged for a race had not himself a direct 

 interest in one or more of the other competitors. Thus fresh 

 legislation was unavoidable, and in 1882 Mr. Craven, returning 

 to the attack, moved and carried by a majority of 1 1 the fol- 

 lowing resolution ' That the stewards be requested to exercise 

 in future, at their discretion, their power of withholding licences 



