86 " GENTLEMEN-RIDERS " 



late in life. He had nearly attained his majority 

 when a scratch point to point was got up amongst 

 his Leicester friends. This Mr. Herbert Sidney 

 contrived to win. From that hour his attention 

 was turned towards racing. It has often been 

 said that small beginnings are conducive to great 

 endings — this certainly seemed to apply to the 

 gentleman in question. Shortly after feeling the 

 flush of victorious pride, he rented a small farm 

 with plenty of stabling, situated a few miles from 

 Leicester, and stocked it with a small but by no 

 means expensive stud. Acting as his own trainer, 

 he rode, trained, and won local races on horses 

 which nobody felt disposed to deprive him of, 

 when they were afterwards put up to auction 

 after securing the stakes. As time went on, his 

 naturally light hands improved. Then he laid 

 out larger sums upon a rather better class of 

 jumper. Cunning Boy was about the best 

 horse Mr. Sidney ever owned. Sometimes that 

 safe conveyance secured a fair steeplechase at 

 Leicester. From that central point he travelled 

 all over England, and finally pot-hunted down 

 in Wales. 



Now, when all is said and done, no human 

 being can win on inferior horses unless he has 

 extraordinary skill and ability and phenomenally 

 good luck, such as better horses falling. We do 

 not for a moment pretend that Mr. Sidney broke 

 the record and was phenomenal, yet we are 

 inclined to hold him up as a good judge of small 

 handicaps under National Hunt rules. He was a 

 very useful gentleman jockey, and his experiments 



