INTRODUCTION 



greatest exponent in the last fifty years of the old style — 

 and Sloan discovered the new. That this pair were the 

 finest jockeys ever seen by living racing men admits of 

 no doubt. Perhaps the two of them shared equally the 

 faculty of judging pace. In strength of finishing the 

 style of Archer may have been more impressive, but the 

 gift of knowing the peculiarities of an animal, and wheed- 

 ling a horse of doubtful courage to do something for his 

 jockey, has been possessed by Sloan to a greater extent 

 than by any other jockey the writer has ever seen. One 

 has only to see Sloan with cats, dogs or horses in a yard 

 to realise that he might have done anything he wished 

 as an animal trainer. The way he can make friends 

 with a horse who will not let others come near him is 

 remarkable. Not only that, but he will make a horse do 

 whatever he likes. There was one animal in particular 

 at Maisons Laffitte which Tod Sloan could induce to eat 

 anything he liked. It didn't matter whether it was a 

 potato, bread or fruit. The grimaces that old horse 

 would make scrunching up an orange was the greatest 

 comedy possible. As long as Sloan would eat some of 

 it himself then the horse would follow his example. 

 There was another animal who would lift him up by 

 the jacket in his teeth and put him down as gently as 

 a lamb, never hurting him in the slightest. I merely 

 relate these two incidents to show the almost hypnotic 

 influence Sloan has over horses. Does it not suggest, 

 therefore, that there may be some extraordinary sympathy 

 between man and beast which contributed in a measure 

 to Sloan's racing successes ? 



Sloan is a man of super-intelligence, and his views 

 about most things suggest that had he gone into another 

 walk of life he would have been equally successful. But 

 it was too late after that downfall at the end of 1900 to 

 shape himself seriously for other pursuits. Nevertheless 



xiii 



