EMINENT TURF TACTICIANS. 189 



do you think of the colt ? " gazing intensely on him, he sud- 

 denly exclaimed, " Who ! what, Perkins ? " — an incident that 

 caused much laughter among the assembled guests, in which 

 the chief actor did not join. Indeed, I do not ever remember 

 his taking part in any hilarities. 



Nevertheless, Mr. Greville was deservedly much liked by all 

 classes of racing men, as also was the Admiral. But I think 

 that he, like the latter, placed too much reliance on his own 

 unaided efforts, and thought about as lightly of the trainer's 

 opinion as the Admiral did of that of his jockey — of whom 

 he used to say if he had followed his advice, he would have 

 been ruined over and over again. It is quite certain from the 

 Admiral's own account, that he ignored the advice of his 

 jockey, and as he generally made his matches impromptu, his 

 ill-success could not fairly be attributed to the faults of either 

 the jockey or the trainer. I may add, that, so far as I may be 

 permitted to judge, I am of opinion that this self-confidence is 

 prevalent with far too many gentlemen in the present day ; 

 and with the same probably unlooked-for and yet inevitable 

 result — the loss of money and the severance of friends. 



In respect to the question of secrecy, some as we know 

 prefer to race in assumed names ; but I think that very few 

 who do so can thus hide their identity. The late Mr. Graham, 

 who changed his registered name perhaps oftener than any 

 other person, was as well known by the last as the first, a few 

 days after registration. But my impression is that the object 

 of registering a name was not so much to hide the identity of 

 an individual. I believe the practice originated chiefly from 

 a desire to prevent the recurrence of such a thing as that one 

 man should run the whole of the five horses that started in a 

 race in five different names. It was thought that registration 

 would cause the ownership of each hor.se to be defined when 



