CHAPTER XL 



MORE SUGGESTIONS 



Mr Manning and my Weights — Cash and Santoi — Parading a Mistake 



The best starters, apart from Mr Rowe who has been 

 previously mentioned, that I have ever come in con- 

 tact with have been Mr C. J. Fitzgerald in America 

 and Mr Arthur Coventry in England. The former 

 was the best all-round official ever known in my 

 country ; he was the same to everyone — owners, 

 trainers and jockeys — and had a tremendous experi- 

 ence before being put in a greater position in New 

 York. He was Canadian bom, but spent most of his 

 life in the United States, going there when quite a boy. 

 He started as a sporting journalist and spent some 

 years at this. He knew as much or more than the 

 next fellow on the Turf. He officiated at various 

 meetings in Canada and America. He was so 

 thorough in all his methods, having his own ideas and 

 carrying out what he considered was best. He was 

 one of the first to favour the starting gate, and in that 

 he might be criticised, but it was more in the spirit 

 of progressiveness that he took this up. One of his 

 first ideas was that representations should be made 

 to owners and trainers as to the necessity of schooling 

 their horses to the starting gate. He was quite 

 impartial in the way he ladled out punishment and 

 did not bother about praise, for that was not, to his 

 ideas, ever necessary to his duties. 



I have spoken of Mr Coventry and one particular 



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