TRAINERS AND JOCKEYS 263 



simply in riding the horse to win — by how much he did not 

 care. First past the post was his idea of winning, and he 

 preferred ten lengths to a short head. English jockeys had 

 taught us to think that they considered a win by more than 

 a head as something very inartistic, and unworthy of anyone 

 in the first class. Sloan wins by a head and even less at 

 times, but that is when he is not able to win by more. It 

 was a sad disillusionment to see a little man lying along his 

 horse's neck in a position in which, according to ideas evolved 

 from the experience of generations, he could not " help " his 

 mount in the least, continually sailing away in front of his 

 field. " Wait till he uses his whip," they cried ; and they 

 waited a long time, for it was rarely that Sloan wanted to — 

 he won so easily without it. People did not then recognise 

 that an important factor in Sloan's successes was a common- 

 sense practice of letting his mounts go, within reason, when 

 they wanted to, the ability to do this with the proper discre- 

 tion being conferred by a fine knowledge of pace. Then he 

 has fine hands, and no jockey that ever lived could give him 

 a pound in readiness to take advantage of every circumstance 

 arising in a race, in adapting himself to what the others are 

 doing, and to the peculiarities of a course. All these things 

 we know now ; two years ago people were hard to convince. 

 There were some who believed in him, however, and they 

 included those who employed him to ride their horses, much 

 to their benefit. People who had spent their lives and 

 earned their living on the racecourse began to say, " There 

 is something in it," though precisely what they could not 

 define. The small punters did not attempt to discover. 

 Results were quite good enough for them, and they went 

 for Sloan to a man. When Sloan electrified us by winning 

 five races off the reel at the Newmarket First October of 

 1898 the starting -price men fairly yelped, and for the re- 

 mainder of that season they paid Sloan the compliment of 

 charging a commission of from five to ten per cent, on his 

 winning mounts. 



When it became known that Sloan would ride in England 

 throughout the season of 1899 the cry was, "Now we shall 

 see what he can do when he has to take mounts as they 



