My Racing Adventures 



to Watts, whereupon I made bold enough to say- 

 in a jocular spirit : " And where do I come in ? " 



Mr Goodson's response was crisp, terse, un- 

 mistakable. " Why," he said, " you come in 

 with the training bill, and go out with a fat 

 cheque." Whilst, indisputably, it is pleasant 

 enough to go out with a few fat cheques on our 

 person — fancy staggering about beneath the 

 weight of them as though one's actual existence 

 were trembling in the balance! — some trainers 

 aver that they cannot do well out of the fees 

 alone. There must be other accretions. 



The metaUicians — heaven preserve them for 

 our good I — are looked upon for a provision of 

 the nice red gold. Sometimes they fail us in the 

 hour of need; a really "good thing" is upset, 

 perhaps, at the ditch ; conceivably there is a bit 

 of a tangle on our part whilst their withers are 

 unwrung, for it is hard to beat them when first 

 and second favourites go down in a flutter ; and, 

 alas ! the worst feature of the scheme is that we 

 do not usually get over the odds. One is dealing 

 with men who fix their own prices. With a 

 similar privilege, many shopkeepers would soon 

 be able to add fresh developments to their store. 



Speaking generally, indeed, steeplechase jockeys 

 do not bet ; they cannot afford to lose the money. 



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