INTRODUCTION 



his intelligence has enabled him to live — and to keep up the 

 extravagance of a dozen or more of the best cigars daily ! 

 The number of people he has known and the countries 

 he has lived in should make the narrative which follows 

 appeal to a far wider circle of readers than is comprised 

 by merely racing people. 



That well-known sporting editor of books and maga- 

 zines, Mr Lyman Horace Weeks, wrote some years ago : 



" Successful as Sloan has been in his riding and in 

 his personal fortunes, it has all been deserved and worthily 

 supported by the conscientious discharge of professional 

 engagements and a constant adherence to honourable 

 turf methods. In this he has set a laudable example 

 to the members of his profession. At the same time, his 

 record is a shining example of the certain reward that 

 the turf holds forth to men of his calibre.'''^ 



The same writer also said of him in 1897 : " One 

 striking feature of his riding is that his judgment never 

 deserts him at any stage of the race ; from start to finish 

 he uses headwork, placing his mount in a way to secure 

 every possible advantage.'''' 



Frankly I have had some difficulty during the prepara- 

 tion of this book to get Tod Sloan to speak sufficiently of 

 himself. While as a private citizen he has retained 

 absolute confidence in himself, and can be quite as assertive 

 as the next man about what he thinks, I have had a diffi- 

 culty on occasions in getting him to speak out sufficiently 

 as to what big things he has done. And yet he will be 

 quite talkative as to his weaknesses ! 



An American trainer, after this book was finished, 

 called my attention to various little episodes which have 

 not been dealt with by Sloan himself. For instance, 

 from the records my friend the trainer possesses it appears 

 that in 1895 Sloan had 442 mounts, of which he won 

 132, or about 30 per cent., and in the following year he 



xiv 



