298 LORD GEORGE AS A TURF REFORMER. 



also very strict about the weighing of the jockeys, 

 as it was notoriously impossible to weigh some of 

 them accurately, so expert and quick were they 

 with their toes and heels, which enabled certain 

 jockeys to ride some pounds over their proper 

 weight. There was one jockey in particular whom 

 Lord George suspected of this imposition. He 

 related his suspicions to me, and desired me to 

 arrange a trial a few hours before a race in which 

 this jockey had to ride 8 stone, though not on one 

 of our horses. I did so, and with a light saddle 

 he scaled nearly seven pounds over that weight. 

 After the race it was discovered that several 

 pounds of lead had been nailed upon the under 

 part of the scale. 



In the report given of Doncaster Races in 1843, 

 it was stated that " the Corporation had been 

 brought to a just sense of their duties by the 

 indefatigable Lord George Bentinck, who may 

 with the utmost propriety be styled the greatest 

 reformer of all abuses connected with the Turf. 

 The same admirable rule respecting defaulters, 

 which worked so well at Goodwood, is to be put 

 into force here." In connection with the Second 

 October Meeting of 1843, the following remarks 

 were written : " Honest men have to thank Lord 

 George Bentinck for this valuable reform of the 

 Turf; for if that nobleman had not persevered to 

 the utmost, even his powerful influence would 

 have been blighted, and a host of rotten sheep left 



