SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



asked why so shrewd a man as Admiral Rous sold 

 Weathergage for a nominal sum. Well, the best of 

 us are apt to err at times, and on Weathergage's 

 failure in a Selling Plate at Northampton just before 

 he was sold no encouragement existed to hold him 

 in regard. 



Tom Parr, I may add, was the first trainer who 

 discarded the absurd practice of plaiting a horse's 

 mane before it raced. And I think I was the next 

 to follow. My conversion to the new treatment — or, 

 rather, absence of treatment — was effected through 

 one day seeing a boy at work on a little horse of 

 mine called Soothsayer. He was a black colt, but 

 through excitement and agitation he was, by lather- 

 ing, more like a grey. 



" What are you doing?" I said to the boy standing 

 on the bottom end of a bucket. 



" Please, sir, he's going to run, and I'm plaiting 

 his mane." 



" Balchin," I called, " look at this horse. He's in 

 a nervous funk. Never again plait the mane of one 

 of my horses. It's telling him what he has to do. 

 I'll have no more of it." 



Common sense has, I am glad to say, prevailed, it 

 being the exception now to find that which then was 

 the rule. 



One of my purposes in visiting Newmarket on 



27 



