TOM CANNON 79 



We are disposed to range the dashing horse- 

 manship of the late Major Owen, if not alongside, 

 at all events in the same direction, as poor Fred 

 Archer's. Mr. E. P. Wilson was a renowned 

 amateur of a similar school. 



Cross-country riders, whose style may be likened 

 to Tom Cannon's, are Mr. Arthur Coventry, Mr. 

 Arthur Yates — who, for riding a waiting-race, was 

 the most celebrated horseman of his day — Mr. 

 J. C. Cotterell-Dormer, and also Mr. Gwynne 

 Saunders-Davies, who hailed from the Tivy side 

 in South Wales, and, having grown too heavy for 

 riding, now trains. Another popular gentleman- 

 rider, especially a rider of winners of small 

 stakes and also a trainer, was the late Mr. Sidney, 

 who was killed instantaneously through a fall 

 from his horse at Wolverhampton, 1903. 



Having alluded to several representative 

 jockeys who will never wear "colours" again, it 

 is time we laid due stress upon the revolution in 

 racing tactics which have been chiefly brought 

 about by Tod Sloan. The exact value from an 

 owner's point of view is not precisely fixed. 

 Some keen men on the Turf declare that the 

 swarthy American was 7 lbs. better than any living 

 jockey, and considered that he was every bit as 

 good as Archer was. Others, who are prejudiced, 

 say, "Tod Sloan rode winners when he got the 

 pick of the mounts." The truth of the matter is, 

 that we find a difficulty in ranking an accomplished 

 horseman who rode setting all preconceived ideas 

 at defiance. What are we to think of such a 

 freak, not unlike a prodigy out of Barnum and 



