SIXTY YEARS ON THE TUHF 



" I said : ' My dear George, don't you trouble 

 about that. Tlicy will know you soon when you get 

 up side of them, especially at the finish.' " 



Thus we see that in two years, even at so late a 

 period as 1876-1878, a new school had arisen which 

 knew not Fordham, and which Fordham did not 

 know. The circumstance would in vain be looked 

 for of late days. We have been suffering, to use a 

 commercial term, from a restriction of output. 



And the result ? That until the Americans came 

 over a certain number of " crack " or " fashionable '* 

 jockeys (the phrase is not mine, but the accepted of 

 the hour) practically ruled the Turf, till it became 

 almost a matter of arrangement which of a certain 

 set should win, while, granting everything to be fair, 

 owners were forced to pay princely retainers to be 

 sure of services on needed occasions. In this latter 

 particular, I OAvn, the arrival of the Americans has 

 brought no relief. Yet they have done good by 

 forcing the pace, and so increasing the accuracy of 

 the running. Since they flocked over we have not 

 been pained with the experience of a mile and a half 

 race being a trot for a mile, and then a burst for 

 sjieed, with the too common result of the speedy 

 instead of the staying horses winning. I have said 

 that the arrival of the Americans has not lessened 

 the cost of jockeys. Perhaps in their direction the 



^64 



