470 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



be forgotten that John Osborne has had many calls 

 upon his income, never at any time a large one. If his 

 inner life were known, and the support he has given 

 unseen to less well-to-do relatives and neighbours 

 trumpeted forth to the world, your cynic would blush 

 at his impertinence in asking the question. He has 

 never been a betting man, nor has he ever lent himself 

 to the machinations of the ring or the plunging brigade. 

 " Roping " was never known in his lexicon. And it is 

 the knowledge of these qualities of head, of heart, and 

 of unflinching principle that has gained him the title of 

 " Honest John," a title decreed to him by the unani- 

 mous voice of public and private opinion, of princes, of 

 dukes and lords, of the rich and poor, the good and bad, 

 all of whom contribute to the republic of our great 

 British sport. The " state of the odds " he ignored, nor 

 was he ever inundated with telegrams from clients of a 

 speculative turn of mind. Discreet in regard to his 

 own horses or those of his father before him, he never 

 surrounded them with a veil of mystery. There was 

 no such thing as " reciprocal obligations " in his dealings 

 with brother trainers. All this is the more meritorious 

 in a " little man " on the Turf ; it proves that he was 

 big in upright principle, big in doing justice to his own 

 good name and to the interests of his honest employers, 

 blended with a due regard to the integrity of racing, 

 and keeping faith with the racing public. 



The axiom, " Nothing succeeds like success," applies 

 with great force to a jockey. Out of luck, however 

 finished a horseman may be, he will have plenty of cruel 

 critics to throw dirt at him, and to allege that he is only 

 fit to ride in a hansom cab. In the closing period of 

 his long career a like epithet was thrown at the yet 

 vigorous Osborne. Many of the brilliant races he rode 



