TOD SLOAN 



effects of this present allowance business may be that 

 a trainer has perhaps only two more rides left for a 

 jockey before he cannot claim it. Those two mounts 

 which may be winning ones are very valuable to him, 

 and he may get a big premium for the services of his 

 boy. Of course a topic of discussion which may be 

 raised is how far a boy should have to stick to his 

 indentures of apprenticeship, and whether when 

 promoted to a proper jockey his trainer should derive 

 the income from his mounts. I leave this to the 

 judgment of others, but there would be an obvious 

 objection if a trainer ceased to have the benefit from 

 that boy's services. To begin with there might be the 

 question of a contract where another would withdraw 

 patronage if a certain boy were not available; and 

 then again a trainer might retard an apprentice's 

 progress so that he should have the benefit of his 

 services for the full term of years. As I have said, it 

 would be better for others to answer this question. 



It must be remembered that the gate too has been 

 responsible for many faults, especially where appren- 

 tices have not learned exactly what methods are to be 

 adopted. They say the gate has done wonderful 

 things. Has it ? Were not the starts just as good 

 before with the old flag start ? It was in many ways 

 far more satisfactory, the children riding having spoilt 



the new. 



The gate has been responsible for more inconsistency 

 of form than anything else. Various records will show 

 that in the thousands of races I have ridden in with 

 the gate I have very frequently got first away. Look- 

 ing back the percentage is remarkable. I first became 

 accustomed to it in California in 1904 ; in fact I had 

 controlled it and was off in front more times than ever 

 before. Tliere are so few who really know it. I 



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