CHASING AND RACING 143 



Gawd ! I've got me bloomin' shirt on yer, and if yer 

 don't click, I'll drown meself." 



A wag (I think it was my old friend " Rapier " of 

 the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News) when 

 asked how it was that a rider with such unorthodox 

 methods as myself managed to win so many races on 

 " impossible " animals, replied, " Oh, don't you 

 know ? I'll tell you ! He climbs up his horses' 

 necks and shouts bad language into their ears. This 

 so shocks them that in their endeavours to avoid 

 contamination, they exert the last ounce of effort." 

 There is some truth in the gibe, for I had adopted a 

 modified " monkey crouch " long before Tod Sloan, 

 or even Simms, had proved its efficacy ; whilst as for 

 using bad language, I admit the soft impeachment ; 

 for I found it highly efficacious in the case of Weasel, 

 at any rate. On this occasion I applied to him a whole 

 gamut of opprobrious epithets, plus a severe one, two, 

 three with the catgut and a dose of steel tonic. It was 

 seldom my habit, and never my pleasure, to use whip 

 or spur to Weasel ; but amiable beast that he was, he 

 did not resent it when I considered it necessary, and 

 he never bore malice ; but he knew more about the 

 alluvial peculiarities of the Croydon track than his 

 rider, and had no intention of exhausting his vital 

 resources until the psychological moment arrived. 

 No sooner was he on the sound turf and his head set 

 straight for home, than a wonderful change came o'er 

 the spirit of his endeavours. He caught sight of the 



