A Morning at Newmarket 251 



listening for the most unwelcome noise one sometimes 

 hears on these occasions — that catch in the breath which 

 proclaims the incipient roarer. The first jockey we meet 

 is the rider of Solomon, just getting on his hack. 



' They beat you easily ? ' is the trainer's interroga- 

 tive greeting. 



* Oh, yes. They had the speed of me all the way. I 

 felt from the start that I had no chance,' he answers ; 

 and his opinion is worth much. ' That's a real good 

 'un, Harlequin, and the big one will win plenty of races 

 too ; he ran green when we jumped off.' 



' Was it a good start '? ' he is asked. 



' Very good. Flowery Land had just a bit the best of 

 it : but we were very even.' 



The winner, a beautiful colt, is a picture indeed, as 

 he stands with expanded nostrils — from excitement, not 

 distress — turning his head from side to side, and moving 

 his delicate ears, as it . seems, interrogatively. He has 

 never been asked to do this sort of thing before, and 

 does not quite understand what it all means. A real 

 good horse, doubtless, with infinite possibilities ; and 

 yet we remember that when we first saw him canter his 

 action was so round, and he seemed to labour so much, 

 that we hastily set him down as a handsome failure — to 

 have these hasty impressions very agreeably removed 

 when one morning a jockey who could hold him together 

 and ' get him out ' replaced his boy. Then he showed 

 himself a different animal. 



It is in assisting at such an incident as this that one 

 really enjoys a morning at Newmarket. 



