206 WEIGHTS AND DISTANCES. 
or Doncaster, would attract a larger concourse, and create 
more interest, than the sight of twenty or thirty useless brutes 
running all over the course with children on their backs for a 
4100 scramble. 
When the riders are men and accomplished jockeys, if the 
horses be beaten the owners are satisfied and the public are 
content ; for it is known that the best horse has won, and that 
the defeat is not due to the ignorance of the rider. And if 
this be so, is it not a reason why all true lovers of the race- 
horse should take some steps to see jockeys more often in the 
saddle? Probably the best method of procedure would be 
to petition the Jockey Club to take the revision of the light- 
weight scale into consideration, with a view to bring about so 
desirable a revolution. 
I have named in Chapter XVII. the incident of a trial at 
Welbeck Abbey ; and I may here mention that the Duke of 
Portland’s idea of racing was much at variance with the prac- 
tice in vogue now. He disliked a short race, and was never 
known to give orders to wait. But when he had a horse that 
was a jade, he used to say facetiously to my father, “ John 
Day, I suppose you had better make play ‘behind.” In 
contrast to this, we see, in the present day, two noblemen 
making a match, the shortest of allowable courses for three- 
year-olds, with some 6 st. on them; in fact, shortly after- 
wards, one of these tiny jockeys is seen riding 8 st. 10 lbs., 
absolutely being preferred before the old jockey who usually 
rode for the stable. It is impossible to tell what risk owners 
run in putting up liliputians on saddles insecurely fixed on 
mountains of saddle cloth, unsafe for the boy, and dangerous 
for the horse. Moreover, to prevent the heavy saddle from 
slipping round, or getting back on the horse’s flank, or 
the saddle-cloths from falling off, the girths and surcingale 
