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about, as his doings and feats in the saddle will 

 speak for themselves ; but I will take this oppor- 

 tunity of saying that a nicer- mannered or more 

 gentlemanly young man I have seldom met ; in 

 ridinof and behaviour he is an ornament to his pro- 

 fession. 



An amusing incident happened at the meeting I 

 have just mentioned. On one occasion the gentle- 

 men had been having a very bad time of it, and 

 they wanted to know if John, as they always called 

 Mr. Day, could find them something to get their 

 money back on. He said : 



"Well, I have a useful colt in the stable named 

 ' Land Tax,' if Mr. Starkey will let him run. He 

 can win the Nursery with any reasonable weight 

 on his back." 



' Land Tax' was entered for a Nursery Handicap 

 over-night, and had nearly bottom weight, 6 st. /lb. 

 In the race was another animal called ' Viridis,' a 

 very smart filly, who was allotted 8 st. 12 lb. She 

 belonged to the same owner, and John Day 

 thought she might as well run (as no expense 

 was entailed by the outing) to get a little weight 

 off. Most of my readers know what that means. 

 This filly was ridden by Bob Salter, who was 

 generally known as the " Stable Jockey," and I 



