DERB V AND O THER JOCKE 1 '5. 93 



are sometimes pla3'ed in the training-stables ; but dis- 

 cipline, as a rule, is well kept up, and the lads are 

 sharply looked after, which is necessary, as they are 

 exposed to great temptations, which some of them, 

 unfortunately for themselves and their masters, are 

 unable to withstand. ^lany a fierce attack made on a 

 horse in the money market has been traced to a 

 breach of trust committed by boys in a training- 

 stable. It w^juld be passing strange if among a body 

 of 10,000 there were not a few black sheep. 



The social position of the jockey has greatly 

 changed since the da^-s of Singleton and Buckle : he 

 is now a gentleman, comparatively speaking, and ob- 

 tains recognition from persons much above him in 

 social station. When, during his holidays, the chief 

 jockey takes a look round in foreign lands, he has 

 noble captains for his companions. The jockey of the 

 period does not nowadays require to walk, leading his 

 horse from meeting to meeting, and there are riders 

 now at a greater variety of weights than there were 

 eighty or a hundred years ago. There are over two 

 hundred licensed jockeys at the command of the 

 OAvners of horses, and the Jockey Club never passed 

 a more sensible law than that Avhich compels each 

 jockey to take out a license : it is in the nature of 

 a bond for their good behaviour, and has already 

 proved beneficial. 



