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SLOAN SAYS HE JOLLIED HIS MOUNTS. Thoroughbreds Are Susceptible to Flattery — How Ornament Won the Brooklyn. "Thoroughbred horses, the topuotchers especially, understand perfectly what is said to them, provided the person whs is doing tlie talking knows how to say it so they will understand." said Tod Sloan in tho course of a chat on race riding. "Much of the success that came to me in the saddle was due to my ability to got tlie confidence of the horse I was riding and to make him understand what I said to him during the progress of the race. "I cannot rCSMSaber that I over rode a race wherein I did not talk to my mount. My position in tlie saddle was such that I usually had my mouth close to the hstnes ear, and in the most friendly tone I filled him full of encouraging words. I always made it a point to get acquainted with the horses I rode before accepting the mount when it was possible to do so. I would visit them in their stalls and ride them at exercise in the mornings. "I won tlie Brooklyn Handicap on Ornament solely by jollying him into good humor while the race was in progress. At the start he had been jostled and bumped until he was sore from nostril to tail. When we got away he had his ears pinned back and I felt that if wo were not a quarter of a mile away at tho finish we would be doing admirably under the circumstances. "I began talking to him right away and on the far turn ue forget his soreness and settled down for a race that called out all the bulldog tenacity in him. When we overhauled Sly Fox a sixteenth out I told Ornament that the Fox horse was a counterfeit. I could see that he believed for when he looked Sly Fox in tho eye. Sly Fox told him in horse talk that he could take it. Ornament did and he wasnt all out at the finish either. Yes sir, the boy who is able to make his horses understand him is tho boy who is going to take down the prizes."
