332 A MIRROR OF THE TURK 



the backers of the horse was not given until the 

 month of February, after a period of five months 

 had elapsed. Such decisions ought to emanate 

 from the Jockey Club ; it is remarkable that it 

 should be possible to accept an entry for an 

 important race about which there should be any 

 dubiety. 



The question as to whether jockeys should be 

 allowed, either directly or indirectly, to keep race- 

 horses of their own ought to be seriously grappled 

 with by the only tribunal which can competently 

 discuss the question ; although the Jockey Club 

 has decreed that, with one or two exceptions, no 

 jockey shall be an owner of race-horses, it is well 

 enough known that ways and means are found to 

 evade the law. That there are jockeys on the 

 turf who are quite beyond suspicion in all their 

 actions is certain, but for many reasons jockeys 

 should be prohibited from keeping race-horses. 

 It is anything but pleasant for a gentleman who 

 employs a jockey to ride his horse in an important 

 race to find that he is just beaten by an animal 

 said to belong to the jockey. The lad may have 

 ridden an honest race, but will hardly be credited 

 with having done so. When gentlemen hear the 

 whisper, " Will he t7y to win for his employer, or 

 will his own horse win?" they can scarcely feel 

 comfortable. One honest meaning jockey, it is 

 known, never takes a mount when one of his own 

 horses is to run. It has been said that a jockey 

 has as ofood a riofht to have horses of his own in 

 training as a trainer, and so he undoubtedly has. 

 But it falls to be considered whether or not it is 

 politic that trainers should run horses of their 

 own. In such cases, however, the men who 



