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RACE RIDING. 



JUDGING PACE. 



A jockey should not only have a firm seat, good hands, be 

 thoroughly well up in all the tactics of race riding, and have 

 courage and dash to carry them out as opportunity may offer ; 

 but should also know at what pace his horse is going in 

 comparison to that of the other runners, should be able to 

 regulate his speed so that he may have the best possible 

 chance of " getting home " successfully, and if required 

 should be able to select the exact spot from which he ought 

 to make his effort at the finish. Constant practice and 

 natural aptitude are necessary to enable one to acquire this 

 valuable art. 



The rude awakening from their dream of self-satisfied 

 superiority which English jockeys have lately had, is as good 

 a proof of the fallacy of applying routine methods to a contest, 

 as the results of certain battles fought in South Africa. 

 Until Sloan made his presence felt, our jockeys as a rule 

 copied each other, instead of studying horses, and became 

 saturated with the idea that perfection in riding was to steady 

 their horses after starting, to come with a rush at the finish, 

 and win by a head on the post. Hence, inability to judge 

 pace was the weak spot which American jockeys found in the 

 armour of their English confreres, the vast majority of whom 

 obtained no instruction in judging pace, except when riding 

 races, in which case the casual lesson often comes too late. 

 Old-time heat races were an admirable means of teaching 

 jockeys this art ; for the manner in which a horse went in a 

 previous heat, would give his jockey valuable information as 

 to the rate of speed he should adopt in the succeeding one. In 

 training racehorses in England, the directions as to speed are 

 generally of the vaguest description, and usually consist of the 

 " steady canter " type, which might mean anything from a 

 riding school " tit-up," to a gallop of nearly full speed. The 



