SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



horses the Americans ride. To my mind the evil 

 has been wrought by : 



(1) The extraordinary apathy of trainers in the 

 education of apprentices ; 



(2) The grievous disincHnation of owners to 

 allow apprentices to ride ; and, thus, 



(3) The steadily decreasing numbers of capable 

 English jockeys, and by consequence (till came the 

 American invasion) the high terms, they could, 

 owing to the existence of a " corner," not so much 

 ask as dictate. 



With regard to the third point, I suppose I have 

 not lived these seventy-seven years without under- 

 standing that, in a measure, a man, whatever his 

 trade or profession, has a right, by the exercise of 

 his skill, to do the best he can for himself That is 

 a proposition of such self-evidence as to need no 

 demonstration. But, none the less, I am not pre- 

 pared to allow that it is for the best interests of the 

 Turf that a diminished number of jockeys, by the 

 very restriction of their numbers, should be so 

 placed as to be able to demand princely salaries ; while 

 I am equally certain that if stable affairs had been 

 managed on a basis of common sense, the opportunity 

 of demanding extravagant terms would not have 

 arisen. But stable affairs have not been so managed, 

 with the consequence of an absence of youthful riders 



250 



