528 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



Sam Loates (who had 256 more mounts) by six victories ; J. Reiff was third with 

 124 out of 604 ; J. T. Sloan was sixth with 82 out of 310. Of the ten jockeys who 

 had won fifty or more races, five were Americans. It is significant of the power 

 of fashion that H. Jones, who rode the winner of the Two Thousand, Newmarket 

 Stakes, Derby, St. Leger, and Eclipse Stakes, and took Diamond ftibilee through 

 his victories as well as that difficult colt could have been taken, does not appear in 

 the winning list at all, because the chances he had of a winning mount were almost 

 entirely restricted to the horses of the Prince of Wales, as His Majesty then was. 

 Yet the American victories need more explanation than the fact that every one 

 was eager to give them the best choice. Two explanations have been given. 



One was that Australian 

 jockeys, being accus- 

 tomed to timing, are 

 therefore better judges 

 of pace than the 

 English, apart from 

 their habit of making 

 the running and being 

 able to finish strong 

 and straight with long 

 stirrup-leathers. Ameri- 

 cans, therefore, being 

 equally familiar with 

 the watch, scored by 

 their experience in the 



same way. But the second explanation, which was favoured by William Day in a 

 letter he published in May, 1901, was that the pace the Americans made at the 

 start was the sole reason for their success. He refused to admit that their 

 knowledge of pace was anything extraordinary, arguing that the boys of 431. and 

 4st. lolb. who won the Chester Cup with Red Deer and foe Miller had no idea of 

 pace at all, for they jumped off ahead, were a hundred yards ahead three-quarters 

 of a mile from the finish, and kept ahead to the judge's box. Too many English 

 riders imagined they had got Sam Chifney's rush, or the patience and skill of Jem 

 Robinson. They waited too long, left their final effort till too late, and meaning to 

 win on the post, they never had time to get level. In any case the Americans did 



" Joe Miller" by " Venison " (1849). 



