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JOCKEY JOHN WATTS. The English exchanges are just to hand with comment on the death of jockey Watts. Though his death was not eo tragic as that of Fred-Archer, there was a melancholy resemblance between them, inasmuch as they were both undoubtedly brought about by tbe terrible struggle with Nature month after month to get off the " last pound" by severe training. Watts was seized with a succession of fits at Sandown Park while watching the finish of the National Breeders Produce Stakes. Although he rallied slightly, few hopes were entertained of his recovery, and he died on the day the Stewards Cup was run at Goodwood. The deceased, whose brilliant career is well known to all having any interest in tho English turf, was only forty-one-years of age. He early had the advantage of learning tho. art of jockey-ship under one of tbe finest horsemen of the age, Tom Cannon, and he modelled his style closely upon that of his master. He early gave great promise, and at the age of sixteen he rode his em- ployers Aristocrat in a dead heat with Sir George Chetwynds Sugarcane at Salisbury. In 1833 he won his first classic victory, to be followed by nineteen others. Amongst these he won the Two Thousand with Ladas and Kirkconnel, the One Thousand with Miss Jummy, LAbbassede Jouarre, Memoir and Mrs. Butter wick, and the St. Leger with Ossian, The Lambkin, Memoir, La Fleche and Persimmon. He rode to victory in the Derby Merry Hampton in 1887, Sainfoin in 1890, Ladas in 1891 and the kings horse, Persimmon, one of the most sensational and popular victories ever seen on tbe English Turf. .Amongst his earliest masters were the late Duke of Hamilton and the Marquis of Zettand. Victory on the penalized Foxhall in the Cambridgeshire of 81 brought him into strong prominence, and his fame was preserved to the end of his caroor. Amongst his patrons were the King, the Duke of Devonshire,- the Duke of Portland, the late Baron de Hirsch, Lord Rosobery, James Lowther and the late G. "Abington" Baird. His connection with Richard Marshs stable, begun for the Duke of Hamilton, was continued until 1899, and perhaps his most lucrative service was a three-year engagement to "Abington" Baird j at a salary of 3,000 per annum. The fame of the late jockey was world-wide, and world-wide will be tho sorrow at tho news of his untimely death. His Majesty the King in his own illneBS did not forget that of his favorite jockey, and he sent a kindly message of condolence to tho widow. His remains were removed to Newmarket and interred there. Few, indeed, are good stories that can be told of poor Jack Watts, for he was always so quiet and reserved, but there was one occasion on which he Bcored off a racing press man pretty heavily. It was just after the race for a very muddy Novomber cup at Liverpool, and Watts, on a sluggish top-weighter, had never been able to get near em. As he re-entered the weighing room, plastered from head to foot with the clods which the heels of the leaders had thrown up, a prosaic reporter asked the not unusual question :i,"How did you come along, Watts?" "Well," sneered Watts, gazing ruefully at his coat of mud, "I dont look as if I made much o the running, do I?" S. Loates dispute with Sir John Maple over the riding contract, which was interrupted by that bad smash-up at Northampton, recalls the fact that "Abington" Baird retained the late John Watts for 5,000 a year for three years, paid in advance and that the executors of Baird, who died before the lease had half expired, failed to recover one cent of the big fee.
