CHASING AND RACING 265 



" Go home to your master, and tell him that I 

 feared I could not do justice to your form, so thought 

 you would race better without me ! " 



This is a record of honesty of purpose ; now comes 

 the antithesis. 



It is related by a certain friend of mine, who also 

 was an amateur rider and owner. Here again methinks 

 that " Ben " collaborated in the output. 



The episode is said to have taken place at Ascot, 

 where the said friend (being anxious to see how a colt 

 of his was going, in a mile and a half race, when still 

 three furlongs from home) posted himself at the turn 

 into the straight out of the Swinley Bottom. In the 

 race in question two of the most fashionable jockeys 

 of the day were riding. For obvious reasons we must 

 invent names for them, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, you 

 know ! Let us call one " Bud " and the other " Jed " 

 (no, they were not of American nationality). 



As the field swept round the turn " Jed " was 

 leading ; whilst " Bud " was rather uncomfortably 

 boxed in the ruck. The latter cried out imploringly, 

 " 'Ere, 'old 'ard, Jed 'old 'ard ! I shall never get 

 'ome by a nob ! " 



The same amateur, who was an Irishman, by the 

 way, had a good story about a " rookie in racing " 

 from the wild and woolly west of Connemara, who was 

 taken to The Curragh, for a treat, by a sporting pal, 

 who proposed to mark his card with acumen and 

 precision ; but Mickey O'Hara, as we will call him, 



