IMPROVEMENTS IN STARTING. 303 



hope you are not offended, but we wanted to 

 make all the sport we could " ! The next heat I 

 told Reeves (the jockey who rode Skillygolee) not 

 to have another dead heat, and he won by four 

 or five lengths. As I rode past the winning-post 

 I asked the judge how far the horse won this time. 

 He replied, " By a length." " No bad length, 

 either," I rejoined. 



Occurrences of this sort were by no means un- 

 common in those days. The starting of the horses 

 was generally performed by the clerk of the 

 course, or some other official quite unused to the 

 work, and the jockeys took every advantage of 

 him. Jockeys then, as now, would use every 

 device in their power to obtain an advantageous 

 start, and to this end some would deliberately 

 cause false starts until they attained their object. 

 Sometimes a favourite would be kept at the start- 

 ing-post for an hour in a state of frenzy until he 

 was more than half exhausted before the flao- fell. 

 As the horses were started by word of command — 

 the single word " Go" being their nunc dimittis — 

 the jockeys were often unable to understand what 

 the starter meant, and sometimes ran the race 

 right through when it was no start. The person 

 deputed to start the horses at Goodwood in 1830 

 had an impediment in his speech, and when he 

 became excited it was with great difficulty that 

 he could articulate a word. For the Duke of 

 Richmond's Plate that year there were a number 



