258 THE ENGLISH TURF 



Bonny Jean, Miss Jummy, Memoir, and Mrs. Butterwick ; 

 the Two Thousand Guineas twice, on Ladas and Kirk- 

 connel ; and the One Thousand Guineas four times, on Miss 

 Jummy, SemoHna, Thais, and Chelandry. In all he has 

 ridden the winners of nineteen classic races, and though 

 he cannot go to scale below 9 st. he maintained a wonderful 

 average. He has an elegant seat and beautiful hands, 

 combined with a good knowledge of pace, and he seldom 

 throws away a race by coming too late. Indeed, if the horse 

 is good enough Watts can always win, and that is a great 

 deal more than can be said for some of the present-day 

 jockeys. 



Mornington Cannon at twenty-nine is quite at the head 

 of the profession, though he finds 8 st. 6 lbs. quite as light 

 as he cares to ride. He of course learnt his riding at 

 Danebury under his father, and he has the pretty style of 

 the Cannon family, but is apparently a far stronger jockey 

 than his father was. Cannon's rush is a thing to be watched 

 and admired, and at fairly "lifting" a horse in on the very 

 post he has at present no rival. To me he seems to get more 

 out of a horse than do most of the present-time jockeys; but, 

 curiously enough, nearly all his greatest victories — victories 

 in which jockeyship has been an all-important factor in the 

 result — have been obtained in minor races, and he has by no 

 means won more than his share of the classic events. He 

 won the St. Leger on Throstle in 1894, but he never was 

 successful in the Two Thousand or Derby until he won on 

 Flying Fox, and in 1900 he won the Oaks for the first time 

 on La Roche. He has never ridden a winner of the One 

 Thousand Guineas. In 1894 and the three following years 

 he headed the list of winning jockeys, but in 1898 he had 

 to put up with third place to Madden and T. Loates, each 

 of whom had over two hundred mounts more than he had. 

 Cannon's fault, which, however, has disappeared very much 

 of late, is that he is too fond of waiting behind, and too 

 averse to setting the pace. A year or two ago it was a most 

 unusual thing to see him near the front in any race until 

 the distance - post was passed ; but of late he has often 

 played a forcing game, and no doubt this policy will tell 



