Riding Fees 



to the bank. Neighbours look at us as though 

 they were about to giggle over a grave. Million- 

 aires do not inspire that fatuous expression. 



Well-known jockeys are also asked to give a 

 variety of indiscriminate tips at the races. Some- 

 body or other is generally " broke to the world " 

 again. It is not always prudent to refuse those 

 pressing solicitations. As a matter of plain truth, 

 if a jockey were riding two winners a day, and if 

 he were so generous as to accede to all the de- 

 mands made on him in the cause of charity alone 

 — and as a rule he is not a parsimonious sports- 

 man, who shuts his purse, like his mouth, with 

 a nasty snap — he might easily give all his riding 

 fees away. What would be left to him, then, 

 save bitter memories ? Who would rush to fill 

 his empty pockets ? Such questions — after a 

 horse has jumped on your head two or three 

 times — are too subtle for an immediate reply. 



Accidents happen to steeplechase jockeys 

 almost inevitably, disabling them for a short or 

 long period according to their luck at the instant 

 of smash, and whilst thus placed hors de combat 

 (perhaps in hospital with a fractured limb or two, 

 or concussion of the cerebellum), they do not 

 earn any riding fees. Such a fine horseman may 

 be incapacitated for a considerable time. He is 



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