SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



Turf. For any one to assert that 4 st. 7 lb. boys, 

 and so on, cannot be expected to ride is to show a 

 singular ignorance of Turf history, as the preceding 

 tables demonstrate. They could ride in the Fifties, 

 and round, too, such a course as Chester, which we 

 are informed nowadays is so dangerous that many 

 jockeys prefer not to take a mount ! The halcyon 

 times for recruits to the Turf were the years from 

 1850 to 1870, during which period a huge number 

 of boys could go to scale at from 4 st. to 6 st., with 

 the worst as good as the best of their size and age 

 of the present period. 



The fault is not the modern boys'. It attaches to 

 the trainers and, in the first place perhaps, to the 

 owners. I have often discussed the matter with the 

 heads of the training profession. " Why don't you 

 bring out apprentices ? " 



" What's the good of taking the trouble ? " is the 



general answer. " Owners won't put them up." 



" But you could use them for your own horses." 



" Oh, it's a deal of trouble, and doesn't pay." 



It might not in the beginning, for most on the 



Turf are indelibly and in painful degree wedded to 



fashion. But in the end, with perseverance, would 



come the reward. Thomas Dawson was not a man 



who aifected foolishness ; and what boys he turned 



out ! It was the same with old John Osborne, and 



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