204 WEIGHTS AND DISTANCES. 
pleasurable, when contrasted with results found in examina- 
tion of the doings at Newmarket. There, as will be seen, in 
the three handicaps, out of 75 runners only one solitary horse 
carried above 8 st. 7 lbs., whilst the 74 carried a less weight 
down to the minimum; or a proportion of I man to 74 boys, 
of whom it may be said that three-fourths at least were better 
out of the saddle than in it. In two of the great handicaps 
at head-quarters, the result is entirely in the hands of these 
pigmies ; for, as we see, no jockey can take a part in them, and 
amongst 38 riders in the other, only 1 jockey is to be found. 
It must be remembered that this result springs simply from 
the adherence to a scale of weights that precludes skilled 
horsemen from riding, and not from any scarcity of such able 
riders; for it will be found that no fewer than 166 jockeys 
advertise their weight in “ Ruff’s Guide,” besides the scores that 
do not. And of the former, 110 can ride 7 stone and above 
it ; whilst the services of the others, or at all events of most of 
them, could be wel! dispensed with. That this is so may be 
readily deduced from a few facts. It is a rare thing nowa- 
days to see more than thirty horses running in one race, or 
more than one race meeting of any note in the same week. 
Allowing that of the 110 adult jockeys, 20 should be absent 
at little race meetings or from sickness, there would be 90 
available at all our best race meetings, or about three riders 
for each horse in the largest races. As it is, under the present 
system, horses are frequently sent from the course unable to 
fulfil their engagements for lack of a light-weight boy to ride. 
There is another point. How, under existing circum. 
stances, as shown in these statistics, are the old jockeys to 
have the requisite practice? or how, indeed, are they to gain 
a livelihood? or, it may be added, how are we to obtain 
jockeys at all? For it is not to be forgotten that the feather- 
