TRAINERS AND JOCKEYS. 51 



to his feelings, as if lie were a mere silken puppet. 

 Oddly enough, vicars always tell you that if there is 

 one thing more difficult of attainment than another, 

 it is the getting rid of a curate they don't like. 

 Jockeys are just in the opposite difficulty, as what- 

 ever sort of treatment they may experience, Jockey 

 Club law does not acknowledge such a process as 

 " sending in a jacket." Its argument is, that 

 masters bring forward jockeys from boyhood, and 

 that therefore it would be hard that the latter should 

 be able to give them up just when their services be- 

 come most valuable, or make masters bid against 

 each other for a priority of call. This may be true as 

 regards boys up to a certain age ; but it falls very 

 hard upon the elder jockeys in two ways : If a master 

 unhandsomely persists in retaining his call, and yet 

 refuses to let them have mounts for his stable, the 

 fact of their not riding for the stable naturally be- 

 comes noticed to their detriment ; and they are also 

 in a great measure hindered from making engage- 

 ments with other stables, who can never feel sure 

 that they will be able to get them, seeing that this 

 dormant prior claim is pretty certain to be inter- 

 posed for a single race or so, just when they most 

 want them. The principle on which the jockey 

 Club goes is no doubt correct, as jockeys would have 

 sore secret temptations to give up masters perpetu- 

 ally, if a rival stable did not care what it paid to 

 have a Derby crack ridden; but if masters are of 

 necessity allowed this power over jockeys, they have 

 no right to abuse it. If they force a senior jockey 

 to retain their jacket, they are bound to give him 

 their mounts, and not to indirectly cast a slur on 

 him, and prevent him from seeking for more consi- 

 derate masters elsewhere. The jacket and the con- 

 fidence are, in common justice, inseparable : both 

 should be given, and taken away together The 

 proper mode, as it seems to us, would be that if either 



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