Racing Stories 



er — effeminacy on that occasion. The charge 

 would be less hysterical." 



Permitting him to score that harmless thrust at 

 my expense, since one must give and take (give 

 what you don't want, take all you can) in these 

 exchanges of badinage, I informed him that if 

 he were unable to ride winners at Nice after a 

 period of "wasting," he was not certain to be 

 regarded by the natives as a jockey of an unim- 

 peachable pedigree and renown. " Losing on a 

 hot favourite," I explained, "is like bringing 

 down coals of fire on your head." 



He nodded approvingly, and remarked that 

 " wasting " was wicked when the flesh was weak, 

 and it was our own flesh, to say nothing of blood. 

 " If you must do it " — and he glanced at me as if 

 I were a " waster " of the first water — " give it up 

 before the evil takes such a hold on you that you 

 have not strength enough to grasp anything else." 



He then told the story of a jockey who would 

 have won the Grand National, he alleged, only he 

 lost consciousness at the Canal Point, and turned 

 after the others by a miracle. He had got off 

 about 10 lbs. in two days so as to do the weight, 

 and he said after the last race : 



" My mare was going very well up to the time 

 that I remember. I thought I was sure to win, 



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