.1 



AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 499 



" old school," if not the new, and both these sections 

 have to be interested, an hour's chat may revive pleasant 

 thoughts and old memories of the days when he was 

 Lord Chancellor of the Turf woolsack on the northern 

 and midland circuit. At all events, his " crack," or 

 whatever one may call it, came from the central spring, 

 and is reproduced on paper as he uttered it. 



Like his old and revered friend and brother trainer, 

 the late Matthew Dawson, who had seen the old- 

 fashioned system of sweating, running in. heats over the 

 Beacon course, John Osborne had lived long enough to 

 witness the introduction of five-furlong races for old 

 horses, rather than confine these short " cuts ' to 

 yearlings and two-year-olds. There can be no question 

 that sprint racing has robbed many an otherwise good 

 horse of his stamina, and by the lesson taught by the 

 Frenchmen of two or three seasons ago, when their 

 horses proved better than the home-bred in long- 

 distance races, the Jockey Club, ever slow to move, 

 acted wisely in enforcing an increase of races 

 beyond a mile at every meeting. A thorough- 

 bred is often a good friend, but can be a bad 

 enemy. When Muley Edris savaged Archer, the 

 poor brute had not forgotten the slashing ' The 

 Demon " had given him in one of his races. And so it 

 was with old Tom Dawson and Mentor, who, on hearing 

 the sound of the trainer's voice alone, became a wild 

 beast so long as he knew his unforgiven enemy was 

 .near him. Equally so was the temper of Grand 

 Flaneur broken by the Ashgill stable boy. Horses are 

 instinct with memory and amenable to kindness. John 

 Osborne, who has never been savaged by one of the 

 thousands of racers that have been through his hands, 

 believes that kind treatment is a great factor in training. 



