JOCKEYS. 347 



honesty, who shall determine if not the man who 

 is the proprietor of the animal, and who has very 

 probably backed his horse to win him twenty or 

 thirty thousand pounds? It may appear to many 

 an exaggeration that such amounts are made to 

 stand the hazard of a race, but it is nevertheless 

 true. Race-horses are frequently "backed" to win 

 sums of from ^i,ooo to ^100,000. The horse 

 called Hermit, which was victorious in the 

 sensational Derby already referred to, won for 

 his owner ^100,000; and the same sum was 

 " landed " — the reader must excuse the slang — 

 when Lecturer won the Cesarewitch in the year 

 1866. In important handicaps it is possible to 

 back each of twelve of the horses entered to win 

 from twenty to fifty thousand pounds. 



The L. S. D. of modern jockeyship can be 

 expiscated by taking a glance at the number 

 of mounts obtained by three or four of the 

 leading horsemen engaged during the racing 

 season of 1890. In that year the chief jockey 

 earned by his public riding alone the handsome 

 amount of 2,271 gs. ; the horseman who was 

 second, earned 1,877 g^.; whilst there fell to 

 the lot of number three in merit (or in success), 

 ^^'h^l gs. These sums represent only the bare 

 riding fees — there would in addition in each 

 case be *' retainers " two or three deep, as also 

 presents in plenty, so that the gross amount 

 stated, 5,465 gs., would in all probability be 

 more than trebled in the course of the season. 

 " I don't value my fees so very much, although 

 they ain't to be despised," said, two years ago, 

 a well-employed jockey, "it's the retainers I get 

 and the presents sent to me that bring up 



