My Racing Adventures 



effect (if my memory does not deceive me) 

 that if I did not risk my neck somebody else 

 would risk his, and that a neck - or - nothing 

 policy was sometimes delectable. It was so on 

 this occasion. 



After, accordingly, riding " Ilex " out of the 

 paddock to compete in that selling hunters' 

 steeplechase, I was stopped on the course by 

 his owner, who calmly removed two pairs of 

 bandages from each fore-leg. " They are more 

 ornamental," he explained, "than useful, and 

 you can win by the length of a street without 

 them." Upon my word, I believe that was not 

 an exaggerated estimate of our potentialities. 

 At any rate, " Ilex " won that race in a canter ; 

 he was not fully extended, and I had the laugh 

 of my friends when we came back. Judging 

 from appearances — I mean from the appearance 

 of " Ilex," my own being above suspicion — 

 we had no chance at all. The critics were 

 astonished, punters were abashed, and when 

 that combination is routed, we have certainly 

 reason to assume that a bit of a cataclysm has 

 just cleared the air. It is occasionally rather 

 oppressive near Tattersall's enclosure. 



Thus revivified — because what a jockey lives 

 for is to ride a winner— I pursued my profession 



76 



