TRAINERS AND TRAINING 



53 



scribed, are absolutely shameless, and some of the 

 ladies who nowadays go racing, and have made 

 a trainer's acquaintance, seem to suppose that his 

 first duty is to enable them to win bets. If his 

 horse is successful, and with a sigh of relief he 

 sees it first past the post, knowing that all else 

 is right, he will hear and read that he is a model 

 of skill, knowledge, and astuteness. If it be 

 beaten by a better animal — who has, perhaps, 

 been " readied " for the event, and weighted ac- 

 cordingly — he must expect to be told that he is 

 thick-headed, old-fashioned, has no knowledge of 

 his business, and that it is folly to send horses to 

 him ; then what I began by saying about the 

 trainer's life being a pleasant one does not apply. 



