228 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



John Osborne's and Harry Hall's the latter at "Spigot 

 Lodge," where the old fashion of lack of ventilation 

 and plentiful ammonia was painfully prevalent. I had 

 been there years before in the days of Tommy Lye, when 

 winter conditions rendered approach, through snow, 

 almost impossible, but even then it was better than in 

 Harry Hall's day, and yet Harry Hall trained good 

 winners from there to beat horses trained under the 

 most approved sanitary conditions. 



Dobson Peacock is a Yorkshireman after my own 

 heart, and I suppose no one at Middleham is better 

 liked and respected. He always sends up a few good 

 yearlings for sale, of which Re-echo is one of the latest 

 successes, and he has a full stable of horses which win 

 a large proportion of races. Money Glass may be 

 noted among the latest of them. 



I have mentioned John Osborne in the above con- 

 nection, and there is no doubt about his capacity as a 

 trainer, but his abiding fame is that of a jockey, and 

 to my mind there never was a more capable jockey 

 I have, of course, seen Fordham, Chaloner, Wells, 

 Archer and all the later ones, but never was John 

 Osborne surpassed by any of them. He gained judg- 

 ment of pace by his original experience in riding heat 

 races this he has told me himself and he anticipated 

 in a modified form the later American style, which led 

 to his being known as " The Old Pusher." His last 

 public mount was on Watercress for the St Leger in 

 1892, and he had really retired some years before that, 

 but he trained The Guller, winner of the Chester Cup, 

 in 1913, and rode him the full distance a few days 

 before, he being then eighty years old or thereabouts. 



I am not writing about jockeys, but I cannot forget 



