222 EACECOURSE AND COVERT SIDE. 



ever saw?" I go on to ask. ''I know you 

 yourself pulled off an Ascot Cup very cleverly, 

 but I won't ask about your own performances." 



"Well," he smilingly answers, "I don't 

 think there was ever a better than my father, 

 and one reason was that he always made the 

 best use of his horse, and oftener won that way 

 than others could by waiting. There was none 

 of that flashy style of winning by short heads 

 that makes jockeys lose so many races nowa- 

 days. The public are caught by this sort of 

 thing, but many races are thrown away. If the 

 jockey wins, they talk of his wonderful finish, 

 coming just in the nick of time, and if he is 

 just beaten, they declare that no one else would 

 have got within a head but So-and-So; while 

 all the time, if he had ridden judiciously, he 

 might have won easily by a length and a half, or 

 maybe much further." 



"■ Do you think jockeys were better horse- 

 men in former days than now?" I go on to 

 inquire. 



" No. Of course Jim Eobinson, and Buckle, 

 and Butler, and the Chifneys, and my father 

 rode some wonderful races, and my brother Sam, 

 who won the St. Leger at nineteen, the youngest 

 jockey that ever did (he was killed out hunting, 

 when he was twenty-one), was a great deal 



