AT LARGE 17 



are opened, it gathers what "jumping off" means, 

 gets accustomed to colours, and presumably bene- 

 fits. Sir B. C. also has a colt, and has tried it 

 to be smart. If it runs for an engagement with- 

 out making any show, a good price may be obtain- 

 able about it in a race on which its owner has 

 his eye a little later on. The jockey is told " not 

 to knock it about if it can't win " — this being a 

 formula which may mean one thing or another ac- 

 cording to the manner in which it is expressed. In 

 one case the affair is honest, in the other it is quite 

 otherwise. 



Information ! That is what most of the 

 inhabitants of the racing world are continually 

 seeking, and it is wonderful in what out-of-the-way 

 quarters they look for it. They see a race run, a 

 public trial, conveying an obvious lesson, and 

 frequently pay very little attention to it ; but if the 

 same animals had been tried at home, and news of 

 the gallop had leaked out, they would be delighted 

 with the idea that this time they really knew 

 something. It is an absurdly credulous world. I 

 have known men, popular owners of horses, on the 

 most friendly terms with other owners, who 

 should, and in point of fact really do, know every- 

 thing that is to be known about some forthcoming 

 race in which they are interested. They have the 



c 



