VENT, VIDI, VICI. 131 



shaking his tail at him without a struggle for it. He 

 knows if he calls upon his own horse before he gets 

 within the length he can live at his best, he will beat 

 him ; and if he lies too far out of his ground, we have 

 been taught lately that a few strides will not always 

 take a race away from another horse, though our 

 jockey may be on a flyer. What is he to do now ? 

 He can do but one thing: he knows his horse's speed; 

 he must judge how he feels under him, what powers 

 are left in him, and time it to such a nicety, that 

 when he does set-to with him, those powers shall last 

 just to the winning post, but would fail in three 

 strides beyond it. And to this nicety will a perfect 

 jockey ride his horse. 



Does this, let me ask, require no head ? Is this a 

 mere mechanical business that any blockhead is equal 

 to ? He may ride, and even make a fair horseman ; 

 but before he can be a jockey he must be taught 

 to think : and what must be the quickness of obser- 

 vation and decision required where a man has only 

 perhaps three minutes given him to observe, decide, 

 and act ! 



I have only represented a supposed circumstance 

 or two to show the difficulties a jockey has to contend 

 with, when in fact they are innumerable. It is not 

 merely that he may ride four or five different horses 

 on the same day, all of which may require to be 

 differently ridden ; but under different circumstances 

 the same horse requires it also. Horses under the best 

 training will sometimes (mares frequently) go back a 

 little, and not be quite up to their usual mark on the 

 day of running: he may be running under higher 

 weight than he has been carrying, or the reverse: all 

 this the jockey must consider, not merely as it will 



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