RECALCITRANT JOCKEYS. 169 



incompetence of the boys that rode them. Noisy was beaten 

 with five stone four pounds on him, and won the Dee Stakes 

 with eight stone seven pounds in the hands of a man in the 

 commonest of canters, and beating such horses as Lord 

 Alfred, Lady Tatton, Corcebiis, and other good ones at even 

 weights the same week. 



I think it is clear that such riders can only enrich the book- 

 maker, who has the chapter of accidents in his favour ; and 

 that to their employer, who is obliged to stand or fall by the 

 solitary object of his choice, these performances mean nothing 

 but ruin to all but millionaires. 



There is another difficulty with jockeys in our day which 

 has yet to be described. We have seen that the urchins put 

 up to ride have not always the power to do as they should, 

 even when they have the desire. But there are other cases in 

 which riders can and ought to do their duty, but when, by the 

 wilful disobedience of the legitimate instructions of their em- 

 ployers, they render racing no longer a science, but a game of 

 chance on a par with hazard, and make the opinion of the 

 tyro equal to that of the sage. Happily such cases are few ; 

 but that they do occur with both boys and men, there is 

 evidence as ample as there is certainty that, with the latter at 

 least, such a thing should never be. 



I allude to races in which "a declaration to win" has 

 been made. 



If an owner runs two horses in a race, he has a right to 

 declare with which of the two he will win ; that is, supposing 

 that the one he selects can beat all the other horses in the 

 race except his stable companion. On such occasions, we 

 sometimes see the jockey who is riding the other horse come 

 and win, when the animal concerning which the declara- 

 tion has been made is second, in open defiance of positive 



