APPRENTICES AND HORSEMEN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1247, 12 March 1914, Page 11

APPRENTICES AND HORSEMEN.

Some time ago in an article which he sent to the press the famous horse trainer Mr. John Porter (now retired) asked: —“Where are the jockeys? Where will they be in the course of a few years? They appear to be diminishing annually. Where are they now? They have disappeared almost to a vanishing point. It is deplorable to think that for our leading jockeys we have to go to America and Australia. England used to be the nursery from which all nations looked for their supply. Are we becoming a degenerate race? Or is it the system that is at fault? I can remember the time if I had a horse good enough to run for the Derby I could find twenty jockeys good enough to ride him. But, then, they had years of experience before they arrived at the weight we now start at. The School Board may have something to do with this, but not all of it. I have read with great interest the many opinions that have lately been given on the subject. I think the suggestion of a 51b allowance to apprentices, riding for their own stable, a good one. This allowance should go on during the whole of their apprenticeship, which should not be for a less term than five years. Two or three of these years would be taken up in teaching and riding gallops and trials before they would be qualified to ride in public. Therefore, I would venture to suggest as some remedy for the evils from which we

are suffering that owners should back up the trainers by putting up the boys the trainers have taken the trouble to teach. Plenty of boys can ride; it is the opportunity that is wanted. We are fiddling too' much on two or three strings. The great advantage in putting up a boy connected with the stable is this. He is on the spot, under the personal supervision of the trJainer; he is riding the horses daily, thus gaining a knowledge of their different peculiarities. Horses are like human beings, different in temperament and disposition. It is a great advantage to gain a knowledge of this. I would also lower the standard of weight to 5 st.

“There has been a tendency of late to raise the weights from the idea that little boys are deficient in strength to manage horses. Why, almost all the good jockeys I have ever know commenced to ride races when they weighed but little over 4st. To say that they cannot ride is sheer nonsence. Weatherby’s teem with abundant evidence to the contrary. Three-year-olds seldom win a handicap now before the middle of the racing season. The margin between the top and lower weights is not sufficient to give them a fair chiance. By lowering the weights apprentices would get more riding, and be better qualified to compete on equal terms with other jockeys of longer experience.

FORDHAM, ARCHER AND SLOAN-. “ Since I commenced racing some

sixty years ago, I have seen three geniuses representing three different styles of riding (continues Mr. Porter). Fordham, with his medium, short stirrup, just short enough to clear the pommel of the saddle with a little to spare, taking tight hold of his horse’s head, leaning slightly forward with his hands resting on the horse’s withers, thus throwing the weight on the horse’s shoulders, but still in a position to give him power to drop into the saddle and control a horse when in difficulties, and drive him straight home at the finish of a race. Then came Archer, with his long legs and short body, riding with a long stirrup and a long rein. He had many imitators, but they were not made that way. Archer was not a finished horseman like Tom Cannon and others that I could name. It was his indomitable energy, his wonderful nerve, his power of embracing opportunities during a race that made him so superior to others. He wag always ready to ride your trials, he was generally the first to weigh out for a race, the first at the post, and, in fact, his whole soul was in the business. The next to appear, and to set a very different style, was Sloan. From the long stirrup and long rein he passed to the other extreme —the short stirrup and short rein. Here again we found a genius, who not only set a new fashion in riding a race, but a new way of runnrng them. Instead of the slow, muddling way of waiting on each other, we had races run through as

they should be. In this he showed his superiority to others by his knowledge of pace. He did not ride from pillar to post as others are apt to do, but at a pace that would give his horse a chance to carry him to the end of a race. Between Archer and Sloan 1 think Fordham showed a happy medium, and his is the style of riding that should be taught and encouraged. 1 do not think either the extremes of Archer or Sloan can give the power and control oyer a horse that is so needful.”

The arguments in favour of apprentices are all very well from the point of view of making the jockey and increasing them in numbers (says “Milroy” in commenting on the above), and for the convenience of the trainer who is building the boy into a profitable asset —at the expense of the owner. Of course, we cannot expect first-class riders like Connell, McLachlan, Smith, and Pike, unless they receive encouragement and opportunity to become expert by giving them their chances in public; but if we use only apprentices for the sake of allowances, what is to become of the already-made jockey who has gone through the mill? He must ride to keep his condition and nerve. Then there is the public to consider. I am still of opinion—and it is the opinion of the majority—that the apprentice should not be allowed concessions in every handicap, except a few of the greater events, and that the object of keeping up a supply of jockeys would be gained by setting aside one or two races a day for ap-

prentices only. If they become expert, as Pike and Wootton did in their boy days, both owners and trainers will be glad enough to use them against the fully-made jockey without asking for allowances. At present horse trainers are ad for the allowance rule, .and the public are against it. It should not be forgotten that popular jockeys have their followers, who go racing solely to back thieir mounts, but if the popular jockeys are superseded by apprentices in every race, not only is their occupation gone, but the clubs probably lose the patronage of their followers, who, as a rule, know nothing about the horses, but just back the jockeys- If the apprentices get all the riding the thick-and-thin jockey follower stays away, or goes to the poines, to follow the leading unregistered artists.