TRAINERS AND JOCKEYS 223 



as well to be able to make an accurate forecast, and, even 

 if the trainer does not bet, the owner may ; and the dis- 

 appointment of backing a supposed good thing, and being 

 beaten by a head or a neck, is nothing compared with the 

 aggravation of seeing one's horse canter away with a race 

 unbacked for a shilling because an under-estimate has been 

 formed of the animal's capacities by the trainer. The trainer 

 to whom this sort of thing happens with any frequency soon 

 becomes the laughing-stock of a world keenly on the look- 

 out for such victims. 



Apart from the horses in his charge, another responsibility 

 rests upon a trainer which would not occur to the mind of 

 the casual observer. With respect to the number of lads 

 employed, the trainer is much in the position of the proprietor 

 of a large seminary, for the lodging and feeding of the 

 "boys" devolves upon him. It is here that Mrs. Trainer can, 

 and often does, play an important role. Stable lads, taken 

 as a whole, are not promising material for the fashioning 

 of silk purses, but this does not deter many a trainer's 

 wife from doing her best, as her husband's representative, 

 to make her charges comfortable and happy. As a school 

 for the acquisition of polite speech a training stable can 

 scarcely be recommended to parents and guardians ; but this 

 is not the fault of the trainer, any more than the petty 

 tyrannies which schoolboys practise upon one another are 

 the fault of the school proprietor. The amelioration of the 

 stable boy's moral condition is a slow process due to a 

 lack of desire to be ameliorated. A great step was taken 

 when the Institute was opened at Newmarket, for there, of 

 course, is the greatest aggregation of stable hands, whose 

 staple amusement in the past was loafing in groups in 

 the High Street, hands in pockets, discussing, in the most 

 objectionable language available, the merits or demerits of 

 horses then engaging attention. Some remnants of this 

 pastime remain, and are to be met with on race nights. 

 In dealing with his apprentices the trainer must exercise 

 much patience. The lads know that, as apprentices, 

 they have a certain standing, and impertinent or indolent 

 boys can give much trouble, as many do. The trainer is 



