RIDING GALLOPS 



Another paper remarked that " So many excellent 

 people are convinced that the American contingent 

 were playing an underhand game that an exhaustive 

 inquiry is as necessary as welcome." 



The following was fair comment perhaps, but didn't 

 do me any good : " I do not see anything objectionable 

 in a jockey betting on his mounts so long as he backs 

 a horse to win, but Sloan deserves a punishment which 

 has been inflicted on him for apparently advising Mr 

 F. Gardner to back Codoman for the Cambridgeshire 

 and accepting the offer of a large sum from that gentle- 

 man if the tip came off. This kind of interference with 

 another man's horse is highly objectionable, and the 

 Stewards are very properly resolved to stop such trans- 

 actions. Jockeys will not in future be disposed to 

 accept gifts from outsiders, but at one time such 

 presents were daily offered and accepted and fashion- 

 able riders did not disdain to receive them from 

 notorious sharps. The possibility of Sloan's return to 

 official favour in England is recognised in the following 

 extract : ' He had better apply himself to the correc- 

 tion and reformation of his manners and excesses, and 

 possibly he may get another licence in 1902 if he con- 

 ducts himself discreetly during the next year.' " 



The best thing to do was a difficult thing to make 

 up one's mind about. I was torn two ways : I had 

 money and had an inclination towards a long holiday ; 

 yet I went to Newmarket, rode gallops (which I was 

 allowed to do) and generally kept myself to myself, 

 in the hope that the Stewards would relent, if not in 

 that season of 1901, at all events when the applications 

 came up for the following year. 



I contracted the craze for motoring and in the 

 summer went over to France and was a good deal about 

 with Henri Fournier, who it will be remembered had 



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