JOCKEYS. 321 



seem to "pull races out of the fire," as some of 

 his brethren do, and the art of nursing a beaten 

 horse home which some few of his brethren 

 manage so wonderfully is probably beyond him. 



John Osborne, who comes of a northern 

 family long connected with the turf, is to be 

 mentioned with respect in any account of the 

 jockeys of to-day. The father of the present 

 John Osborne trained for Lord Zetland, Lord 

 Londesborough, and other well-known owners in 

 the north, and it was the old trainer who taught 

 his son what he knows — and it is much — of 

 horses and horsemanship. 



The attributes of good jockeyship are many, 

 and perhaps it would be correct to put patience 

 almost at the head. This has rarely been ex- 

 emplified more strikingly than in the case of 

 Lord Clifden's St. Leger. It was especially 

 desirable that the horse should win, in conse- 

 quence of the constant rumours that had affected 

 his market status, and when Osborne found him- 

 self, with the worst of a bad start, some hundred 

 yards in the rear, he may well have felt the 

 extreme painfulness of the situation ; for the 

 jockey's integrity is beyond all question, and yet 

 thus to be left would have given some strength 

 to the suspicions which had been in some 

 mysterious way — how has never been explained 



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