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; I , 1 J i a r - s h n p h n ii d ir t; n is is ft his sc e: a a ai m si d te ter, re INCOMPETENT JOCKEYS. It is not the question of incompetent jockeys i alone that is disturbing the racing mind just at present. It is rather what shall bo done with them or for them. In other words, how shall the punishment be made to fit the crime"? That an incompetent jockey is theoretically the worst kind of a political criminal few losers will be prepared to negative. Of course even the best boys will get stale, just as a horse, an athlete or any other conditional human factor works off. This is readily understood and excused by all who have any practical knowledge of the actual surrounding- of a jockeys life, and know what it means to keep weight off and ride two or three hard race.-, a day. week in, week out. In such a case a boy is given a rest br his employers, rides a few no account "skates" possibly for exercise, and by and by rounds to and displays his usual form. This is not what is worrying the public. It is rather the recent case of a jockey who ha- this season, since Aqueduct, ridden twenty-five races and won only two of these events. The other day he rode a particularly obnoxious and atrocious race on a 3 to 5 favorite, finishing absolutely last in a field of four horses, and bis punishment was to be prohibited from riding for six days and then reinstated. The question is. what effect will the six days obligatory retirement have upon the youth? Is he supposed to accumulate practical jockeyship by the absorbtion cure. Surely the -ix days rest is mil expected to make the slightest iota of difference in the capacity of the boy in question. He remains as h-- was. less the six days practice, in which he might have lost several other chances of learning -omethiu-r. and so the state of innocuous desuetude ended, he emerges from his retirement ready and willing to again display his talents with their new and additional polish. What iE to be done in such cases. Some ! representative men hold that when such a boy placed upon a prominent competitor that ; failure to perform satisfactorily should ensure : being eat down, not tor a week, but until i some one is willing to be responsible to some : extent for his capability. Just as the entries of ] horse are refused until lie has been passed as amenable to the starter. Possibly this view may be eutitled to more than passing consideration. If the boy is "incompetent." what is to be 2 done with him . If something else is the mat- why tag incompetent" to bis punishment record?— Spirit of the Times. 2
