WAITING. 131 



judging by the way the horses he has most to fear are 

 going, and by the distance they are from him ; he should 

 then sit down in the saddle, catch hold of his horse's 

 head, and trust to speed to make up lost ground and win 

 the race. 



When giving orders to wait, it is always risky to lay 

 down too precise directions for one's jockey, such as to 

 keep a certain number of lengths behind the leading 

 horse, who may be sent from the start to cut out the run- 

 niog for another, at a pace which will cause himself to 

 collapse before half the distance be gone ; or to wait on 

 some particular horse, a proceeding which has been the 

 cause of many a mistake, for the dreaded one may turn 

 out a rank duffer that is unable to go fast, so that the 

 jockey, by waiting on him, may have, in the meantime, 

 allowed the others to get so far a-head, that there may 

 be no catching them before it is too late. As a rule, it 

 is far better to ride a race, so as to suit the capabilities 

 of one's own horse (with which one ought to be fully 

 acquainted), than to devote one's entire attention to 

 the weak points of the supposed dangerous horse or 

 horses, which must naturally be problematical; for this 

 reason, I would never hamper a jockey's judgment by 

 laying out the programme cut and dry, but would sim- 

 ply tell him my horse's peculiarities, and what kind of 

 running would most likely bring him quickest home. 

 For instance, with a speedy horse in a 1 \ mile race, ins- 

 tead of telling him to wait so many lengths behind, I 

 might say " get off well and keep at about three-quarter 

 speed to the f mile post, gradually get up within a 

 couple of lengths of the leaders at the distance post, 



