30 THE RACING WORLD 



in saying that the most satisfactory master is the 

 master who knows most about racing. He under- 

 stands what you are doing and why you do it, 

 and in a great measure, too, he shares your 

 responsibility. Not a few owners of racehorses 

 know nothing about them to start with, seem 

 quite unable to learn, and for some mysterious 

 reason always appear to have a bevy of friends 

 who are equally ignorant of Turf affairs, whilst 

 often supposing that they are authorities who 

 should be listened to with attention and respect. 

 They gather their ideas from the sporting papers, 

 frequently quite misunderstanding what they read ; 

 and then, again, the papers are not all of them 

 by any means trustworthy. I often think that 

 if racing reporters never betted their conclusions 

 would be of greater value, for when a man has 

 lost money on a horse which he expected to see 

 win, he is a little too apt to think that if the 

 jockey is not at fault the trainer must be. In 

 such a case the owner and his friends, unable to 

 judge for themselves, read what is said about the 

 horse, and the result is often very unpleasant. 

 Some admirable articles are written about racing, 

 but some scribes are prejudiced, ignorant, and 

 stupid. 



I hope I do not seem to be complaining, and 



