THE MODERN JOCKEY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3641, 14 March 1883, Page 4

THE MODERN JOCKEY.

Thu jockey of our grandfathers' days was a servant who stood on the mat in the hall waiting to be called into his master's library to bo paid, respectfully touching his forehead at each word, taking a glass of wine with thanks and gratefully accepting a gratuity of £'2b for winning a great race. A jockey of the present days—that.is to say one who has a reputation—has perhaps no more education than his predecessor, but he has a secretary to conduct his correspondence, and a valet to put on his '' purple and iine linen,'" or what stands for it at this end of the nineteenth century. lie does not put his legs across the pigskin under a "pony" and expects at least a "monkey" when ho pulls oft' " a big thing." Above all, he associated with his employers. Not long .since, in an agricultural showyard, a

famous jockey was to be seen sitting- on a barrel between a duke and a duchess, in intimate converse. The jockey is supposed to be able to tell t; good things " —to have the secret of "wealth beyond dreams of avarico" —and lias, like George Hudson in the days of his royalty, or Baron Grant, when he was still building , Ms doomed mansion, a crowd of obsequious and con(l'jscendivg followers. To discuss plans for retraining , and reforming such prosperous gentlemen, "Bora in a garret, in a stable bred," is pimply a waste of time. As the child is father to the man, so the jockey rolling- in his brougham to tako his place in a first-class camajro on his way to Doutitster, is the child of the racing system.