NEVER SAW FRED ARCHER 



very effective on occasions. I have never, to my 

 knowledge, seen or ridden a horse having this kind 

 of homely dope, but it is quite possible to maintain 

 that no permanent harm could be done by swallowing 

 either. I have also read and heard about whisky 

 being used, but I should keep an open. mind about its 

 possibility. 



Dope is given to horses to stop them. This I am 

 almost certain of. Surely a poisonous drug might injure 

 a horse's racing career for all time. Good gracious me ! 

 think of the effect on an athlete : his stomach and 

 nervous system might be ruined for ever from the 

 effect of swallowing the kind of poison which beyond 

 question has been given to race-horses. We Americans 

 were all supposed to be absolute experts in dope, but 

 don't believe half you hear on the subject ; three- 

 quarters of it is absurd. Modern training methods 

 and riding in new styles made so much difference that 

 critics could not understand altered form and attri- 

 buted it to little bits of " You know what, mixed as 

 we know how." 



One of the greatest regrets of my life was that I 

 never saw Fred Archer ride. I have stood several 

 times by his graveside in the cemetery at Newmarket 

 and tried to picture him from his photograph doing 

 those wonderful records which I had read so much of. 

 Americans in my early days were always discussing 

 the merits of Archer compared with those of boys like 

 McLoughlin and Garrison. I was continually told that 

 Archeif had ridden two thousand seven hundred and 

 forty-eight winners during his career of nineteen years. 

 There is sufficient in this to make him the greatest 

 living jockey of all time. Doesn't it seem a terrible 

 thing for any man to be cut off from trying to equal 

 that record ? Perhaps it might not have been possible, 

 p 225 



