STARTERS AND STARTING 149 



flag, a wily jockey would not go unless he was 

 ready, and he was never ready till he thought he 

 had just a little bit the best of it. If one or two 

 others were before him, and he felt that the start 

 was imminent, he would call out, " No, no ! " and 

 swing round his horse. Some of the jockeys were 

 at once so artful, and so apparently innocent and 

 anxious, that they reduced this business to quite a 

 fine art, and boys really had no chance with them. 

 The trick had long been fully recognised by the 

 authorities, and in the Rules of Racing it was ex- 

 pressly laid down that a jockey who was guilty 

 of " wilfully turning his horse round " or of " hang- 

 ing back " was to be reported to the Stewards ; but, 

 as I have said, they did this so cunningly that it was 

 difficult to say when their action was intentional. 

 Now, however, the runners are, all being well, in 

 a line, standing still, and the younger jockeys can 

 get off on equal terms. 



The Stewards' orders are at present, in the 

 altered state of affairs, that " horses must be started 

 from a stand," and it is necessarily a difficult 

 thing to get a number of highly strung animals, 

 with their jockeys on the alert and eager to be off, 

 to stand quite still in a line. Some horses can 

 hardly be induced to remain motionless, but the 

 starter must get them to stand so at least as nearly 



