Riding Orders 



to keep people in good humour. I do not know 

 whether anybody was much the wiser or much 

 the worse. 



Summing up the situation with an impartial 

 mind and as succinctly as possible, I can only 

 express my belief as to riding orders that a good 

 jockey should be allowed to use his own discre- 

 tion as far as practicable, especially when he 

 knows his mount. Hard-and-fast rules are 

 difficult to carry out in this association. It is 

 foolish, as hinted, to give 20-mile orders for a 

 1-mile race. Besides, I heard a small jockey 

 confess that if he had not luckily forgotten 

 all the trainer's instructions for his guidance, 

 he could not have hit the bull's-eye. "The 

 old man," he said, " has a 5 - furlong tongue, 

 and when he fairly slips himself nobody can 

 remember what the voice meant." When we 

 forget what the voices meant, we have often as 

 good as backed a winner. 



HI 



