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CHAPTER XIII. 



UPON TRAINERS. 



OF the two sister arts, training and riding, which are the chief 

 auxiliaries of the noble sport of horse-racing, there can be little 

 doubt that since the beginning of this century the former 

 has undergone more radical changes and made more decided 

 advances than the latter. Within the memory of many who 

 are still far from old men, two admirable judges of racing have 

 passed away we refer to Mr. Thomas Thornhill, of Riddles- 

 worth, and to the second Marquis of Exeter who were always 

 ready to maintain that between the best jockey ever tossed into 

 the saddle and a good stable-boy there was no very great differ- 

 ence. 1 'Give me three pounds the best of the weights,' Lord 

 Exeter was in the habit of exclaiming with a characteristic 

 chuckle, ' and I will run the match over again to-morrow, with 

 Norman, whom you call " the post-boy," upon mine, and with 

 anybody you like upon yours.' Sir Joseph Hawley, again, was of 

 opinion that a competent jockey could always be found if the 

 horse was good enough. The fourth Duke of Grafton used to 

 say to Robson, his trainer, ' Let us first find the horse, and then 

 it will be an easy matter to find a jockey to ride him.' But 

 between the best trainers of to-day and their predecessors of 

 sixty years ago and more there is, in some particulars, as much 

 difference as between an express train and an old stage-coach. 

 Speaking broadly, there are now, and there have from the 

 beginning been, but two styles of training the lenient and the 

 severe. No better exponents of these systems could perhaps 



1 We strongly hold a contrary opinion, which every day's experience con- 

 firms, as to the very great difference that exists between jockeys, and the 

 advantage of securing the best. ED. 



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