Turf Characters; The Officials and the Subalterns (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852 edition. Excerpt: ...but in all his gallops through the important process of training, particularly if the horse is inclined to be vicious, unruly, or difficult of management. The skill and resolution, indeed, which some of these little fellows evince, are, in many instances, astonishing. Nor, on the other hand, are several of them deficient in forming a remarkably correct judgment as to the powers and capabilities of the respective horses in the establishment to which they belong. Instances have occurred, in this respect, which have put to the blush the opinions of older heads, --even of those persons who possess a wider range of experience, and embrace a larger field for the exercise of their own judgment and discrimination. The acquirement of this knowledge, on the part of the Stable-boy, is to be mainly attributed to a correct perception of the speed of the respective horses during the severest exercise, aa well as to their temper, their action, and their constitution. For, although the Stable-boy, on the occurrence of any important " spin," or trial, when the respective competitors in that trial are ridden by the regular jockeys, weighed correctly and according to particular circumstances, is not permitted to witness the result, and is, with his companions, locked up and kept literally as a stateprisoner during the occurrence of such special or legal trial; yet he can, after such " spin" is over, form some opinion as to what has been the issue, from the state of his own horse, or that of his companion, --whether he has been severely punished or otherwise, even notwithstanding his ignorance as to the weight which has been carried by each competitor, without particularly mentioning the deception which has been practised on these occasions. But the Stable-boy...