My Racing Adventures 



necessarily a merry one, but the party owning it 

 is foolish if he fails to have a bit of a flutter while 

 the light lasts. It is sure to go out in a feeble 

 splutter. 



Poor Charlie Hogan, when he was riding over 

 a country, used to get some nasty falls ; he did 

 not pick his mounts. Once, after " coming it " 

 beautifully at Manchester, he explained to me 

 the curious advantages of his position. " Sure 

 and bedad," he ran on, " I'd rather fall here than 



swing round at such a meeting as . For 



here " — his eyes sparkled — "I'm no sooner 

 down than there are men with flasks at my 



mouth, but, sure now, at you are left to 



lie where you fell and lick the dew off the 

 grass." Hogan possessed a considerable share 

 of humour, and another of his pronouncements 

 was this, delivered very racily : " When Charlie 

 Hogan, that broth of a boy, is afraid to ride 

 anything on four legs, or on three legs and 

 a 'swinger,' Charlie Hogan will send for his 

 mother to come and hold his hands up while he 

 weeps through his fingers." He meant what he 

 said, every word of it, though all his words were 

 not exactly true. Some were spoken in jest — 

 not the finest test of accuracy or sincerity. 



" We get nothing extra," an old steeplechase 

 152 



