HINTS ON MISTAKES IN TRIALS. 145 
could occur; yet, as a matter of fact, as I have said, they do 
occur, and far too often and inexplicably. The state of the 
ground, for one thing, should be carefully considered in its 
effect for or against individual animals. Neglect of this may 
upset the rest of your calculations. For myself, I have very 
seldom seen horses that have been properly tried, fail to ex- 
hibit the same form in public—rogues only excepted. I can 
only, therefore, conclude that when mistakes are made, they 
are assuredly assignable to some cause, and may be traced 
either to the want of forgsight on the part of the trainer, or 
to an opinionated owner, or to an unskilful jockey. It often 
happens that little contretemps take place in trials and races 
that the jockeys alone know of, and of which they seldom 
speak unless questioned on the subject, which, if known, 
would explain seeming contrarieties. It is often seen in a race 
of twenty or thirty runners, that two-thirds of the number of 
horses that have been highly tried and pronounced by astute 
judges to have an excellent chance, are literally “never in 
it,” being beaten by some veritable outsider. In such cases 
there must be something wrong, and a thorough investigation 
is necessary. Were the case mine, I would do as I have 
already described in the case of an unsatisfactory trial—I 
would try over and over again until I uad satisfied myself as 
to the source of error, and then take precautions against a 
repetition of it. 
In illustration of the suggestions contained in this chapter, 
I will describe two or three trials of which I was an eye- 
witness. 
The first took place here in the presence of a nobleman, 
one of the cleverest and most experienced men on the turf, 
between General Hesse, a speedy old horse, and a half-bred 
Arab, over the T.Y.C. The latter, with only a boy up, beat 
L 
