OWNERS AND OWNING 



59 



should join the band, but rather unexpectedly I 

 found myself in circumstances which enabled me 

 to do so. One of my oldest friends had raced 

 prominently years ago, and with him I discussed 

 the subject. I did not expect to acquire a fortune 

 on the Turf, I told him ; I had no absurd ideas of 

 that kind; if I could make both ends meet, and 

 have my fun for nothing, I should not be dis- 

 satisfied, though of course I might have luck as 

 well as other people ; and I thought this all 

 extremely modest. Really and truly I had a 

 notion that with a carefully chosen stable, and 

 a resolution only to bet on my own horses, which I 

 had heard and read was the judicious course, I 

 might, at any rate in most years, make the sport 

 pay ; but my friend did not seem to share this 

 view. Luck, he admitted, had much to do with 

 success on the Turf, but he thought that on the 

 whole, if all went well, I might reasonably hope 

 that mv racing would not cost me more than some 

 ^2^1,500 or ^2,000 a year — which struck me as an 

 altogether unduly pessimistic view. 



There was a trainer whom I knew, liked, and 

 trusted ; he had, I was aware, a good many empty 

 stalls and boxes, wanted horses — but that is the 

 chronic condition of most trainers, however many 

 they have — and, as I expected, he welcomed my 



