408 THE HORSE 



find that your horse cannot keep its place without doing its 

 very utmost, it is essential to remember whether it is 

 a stayer or not. If it is known to be stout and honest, you 

 can keep at it in hopes that the other horses will fail when 

 also kept at their full stretch, and begin to tire, when you 

 may be successful after all ; but if your animal is speedy 

 but a non-stayer, you must sit as still as possible, and steady 

 it as much as you dare, to within a very few strides of 

 the winning-post, and then endeavour to win by a single 

 short rush. 



There is no worse fault in a jockey than to contract a 

 habit of lying away from his horses, when he has one under 

 him with speed enough to live with them, and then try to 

 make up twenty yards in the last hundred. This is 

 practically turning the race into a very short sprint, and 

 giving the others a start of twenty yards. The only time 

 when a jockey can allow the others to get away in advance, 

 if he also is riding a speedy animal, is at the beginning of a 

 race when he perceives that the other jockeys are racing their 

 horses at such a speed that it is impossible for them to keep 

 it up to the very end; but this requires a jockey of the 

 finest judgment of pace, and should only be put in force on 

 special occasions. 



Many jockeys, otherwise good, develop idiosyncrasies 

 which become so fixed that, when noted by an observant 

 first-class rider, a weapon is put into his hand which enables 

 him frequently to steal a race that he would not otherwise 

 win. In mentioning the following examples I have in mind 

 well-known jockeys of long ago, though ofttimes it would 

 seem that their mantles have fallen upon riders of the present 

 day! As an instance: "A" invariably makes the running 

 if possible, and keeps the lead as long as he can ; so that if 

 it is believed that it will be a close thing between a horse 

 which is fancied and " A's " mount, and it only can be 

 ensured that " A's" horse is kept at the full stretch all the 

 way, and is never allowed a pull, it will be much in favour of the 

 other horse, who will therefore probably gain the race. This 

 may be effected in two ways. Another horse may be started 

 with the express purpose of racing against " A," whilst the 



