TOM CANNON 8i 



will cause people to give wild answers. Those 

 who are not bigoted will reply : " Sloan's method 

 is right for Sloan, Reiff, and American jockeys 

 generally, but not necessarily for English and 

 Continental riders." It has a grave fault, viz., 

 owing to his position a jockey cannot easily 

 prevent his mount from swerving. When all is 

 said and done, in a ding-dong finish it was good 

 odds on the best of our English race-riders 

 beating Sloan. All the records have proved this. 

 We are, however, heavily indebted to him for 

 making " true run " races compulsory, for no longer 

 do racehorses in England canter and gallop at a 

 " muddling pace " for the first half of the course. 



There are different styles of painting, and 

 cultured people have different opinions as to 

 which master should be followed in architecture, 

 music, and in literature. Jockeys also must abide 

 by certain laws. Those who are not original 

 must be content to follow Archer, Tom Cannon, 

 or Tod Sloan until a fourth school is founded. 



We have already stated that an ideal jockey 

 should glean the best points of Archer's, Cannon's, 

 and Sloan's horsemanship. It would puzzle the 

 ghost of Michael Angelo to mould him, because a 

 short-lesfeed man cannot ride the same lengrth as 

 Archer did. Nor can a tall person easily adopt 

 the Yankee way of leaning forward on his horse's 

 neck without feeling insecure. We are bound, 

 then, to fall back upon common-sense and admit 

 that all men are bound to ride more or less in the 

 manner in which nature has formed them. How- 

 ever, it might be advantageous in races over a 



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