My Racing Adventures 



not only in extreme pain — his sources of emolu- 

 ment are dried up. A kind employer comes, 

 perhaps, to his help. He may have some sort of 

 a little home to keep going, for such chevaliers 

 are, after all, very human, though one might 

 not think so to see the way in which they are 

 knocked about, and come up smiling to ride in 

 the next race ; and their expenses continue to 

 run on while they are lying on their back, groan- 

 ing, with a nurse in constant attendance, and a 

 doctor scarcely ever off the front doorstep. The 

 position is not happy. And yet people feign to 

 wonder why steeplechase jockeys do not save a 

 great deal of money ! The marvel is that they 

 are able to save their life to a green old age, as 

 many of them do, and die at last in the odour of 

 sanctity, babbling of " Nationals " they might 

 have won if they had been fortunate enough to 

 have an " Ilex," a " Why Not," or a " Grudon " 

 to help them on their way. 



Some cross-country riders now perform occa- 

 sionally for less, it is rumoured, than the usual 

 fee. It is true that a jockey receives a nice gift 

 sometimes after steering a well-backed candidate 

 to victory. Various sums — I mean a sum vary- 

 ing in amount, not quite the same thing — may 

 be bestowed on that successful pilot, and such 



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