PREPONDERANCE OF BOY JCCKEYS. 202 
He says, “ Short races are destructive to young riders ; the 
custom encourages them to fight for the start, and to ride like 
chimney-sweeps on donkeys. I have never seen worse riding 
than amongst the young crack jockeys thisautumn.” Again: 
“The déte noir of racing is the unsatisfactory system of start- 
ing, and the helplessness of the official starter to control the 
audacity of the young jockeys, who frequently set him at 
defiance.” 
The existence, then, of these two evils—the helplessness 
of the official and the insolence of the light-weight jockeys— 
is admitted, whilst the authorities have the power to remove 
them by the simple process of raising the scale of weights. 
Indeed the dearth of dond fide riders, or men, and the super- 
abundance of so-called jockeys, or boys, are so markedly con- 
trasted that I have been led to compile a little table from the 
three great handicaps run last year (1878) at Goodwood, and 
from the three run at head-quarters. From this, which I 
append, it will be seen that at the former place, out of forty-six 
runners only six carried 8st. 7lb. or above, whilst forty 
carried lesser weights, down to § st. 7 lbs.! 
But disheartening as such a discovery is, it is positively 
1 A Table of the three great handicaps run for at Goodwood ; also of the three 
big handicaps run for at Newmarket in the October and Houghton Meetings, 1878; 
showing the number of horses that ran in each, and how many respectively carried 
8st. 7 lbs. and above it, and a lesser weight down to §st. 7 Ibs. inclusive :— 
Horses carrying 
Horses carrying 8 st. 7 lbs., or above it. less than 8 st. 7 lbs. 
The Steward’s Cup ...... waa demtaetie Bh. sageue ces 17 
The Goodwood Stakes 2 sient 14 
Chesterfield Cup: -sessscisssmisstecanacmaneds I 
6 40 
Newmarket, Great Eastern Handicap.. 0 ......... sa) 
Ceesarewitch Stakes ..............:eeeeer eee 
Cambridgeshire Stakes 
