204 WEIGHTS AND DISTANCES. 



pleasurable, when contrasted with results found in examina- 

 tion of the doings at Newmarket. There, as will be seen, in 

 the three handicaps, out of 75 runners only one solitary horse 

 carried above 8 st. 7 lbs., whilst the 74 carried a less weight 

 down to the minimum ; or a proportion of i man to 74 boys, 

 of whom it may be said that three-fourths at least were better 

 out of the saddle than in it. In two of the great handicaps 

 at head-quarters, the result is entirely in the hands of these 

 pigmies ; for, as we see, no jockey can take a part in them, and 

 amongst 38 riders in the other, only i jockey is to be found. 



It must be remembered that this result springs simply from 

 the adherence to a scale of weights that precludes skilled 

 horsemen from riding, and not from any scarcity of such able 

 riders; for it will be found that no fewer than 166 jockeyS 

 advertise their weight in "Ruff's Guide," besides the scores that 

 do not. And of the former, no can ride 7 stone an-d above 

 it ; whilst the services of the others, or at all events of most of 

 them, could be well dispensed with. That this is so may be 

 readily deduced from a few facts. It is a rare thing nowa- 

 days to see more than thirty horses running in one race, or 

 more than one race meeting of any note in the same week. 

 Allowing that of the no adult jockeys, 20 should be absent 

 at little race meetings or from sickness, there would be 90 

 available at all our best race meetings, or about three riders 

 for each horse in the largest races. As it is, under the present 

 system, horses are frequently sent from the course unable to 

 fulfil their engagements for lack of a light-weight boy to ride. 



There is another point. How, under existing circum- 

 stances, as shown in these statistics, are the old jockeys to 

 have the requisite practice .-' or how, indeed, are they to gain 

 a livelihood .-* or, it may be added, how are we to obtain 

 jockeys at all ? For it is not to be forgotten that the feather- 



