BRITISH STABLES AND FOREIGN METHODS. 



579 



This can hardly be considered a satisfactory state of things by any except the 

 jockeys whose opportunities of making money are vastly increased, without, as 

 far as can be seen, any proportionate production of such good riders as we used 

 to have. Some ,7000 a year in two hands for three years to a lad of twenty 

 who has power to add to this by riding others when his special stable does not 

 want him, is quite enough to turn a wiser and an older head. Pampering him as 

 we do is worse than bullying him as was once the custom. But the system is 

 only what might be expected of the days of preposterous fees for sires, ridiculous 



I 



" Formosa " by " Buccaneer" (1865). 



sums for yearlings, and inflated prices all round. This is not what used to be 

 thought good sport ; it looks more like hysterical money-juggling, without the small 

 excuse that can be made for the extravagant betting it has replaced. As usual, the 

 faddist has gone for the wrong end of the stick. He cries aloud about a gambling 

 which has very sensibly diminished ; and says nothing about far more serious evils 

 which have notoriously increased. 



We hear a good deal about the fortunes made by trainers nowadays, and we 

 certainly see something of the luxury in which some of them think it necessary 



