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FAMOUS LIGHTWEIGHT JOCKEYS. "Thormanby," in the London Sportsman, gossiping of lightweight riders of fame says: " Little Kitchener, Lord George Bcntincks famous featherweight jockey, was, of course, the lightest professional that ever figured in pigskin, and, if I remember rightly, he could ride at fifty-one pounds. George Fordham in his early days rode, however, nearly as light. He made his first mark by winning the Cambridgeshire of 1S52 on Little David for Mr. Smith against a field of thirty-nine, riding at the extraordinarily light weight of fifty-four pounds. Georges mount stood at 33 to 1 on starting and carried eighty pounds, but there were certain keen-eyed sporting men present who were so taken with the boys form and the way he sat ; his horse that they backed him to win. And he not only won, but Little David ran right away with him into the town before he could be stopped. It was a great triumph for the youngster, but ; his master thought he was sufficiently rewarded by a present of a bible and a gold-headed whip. On i the whip was engraved, Honesty is the best policy, and to that motto George kept sternly true all through his long and splendid career as a . jockey. Two years later, in 1854, Fordham won the Chester Cup on Captain Douglas Lanes Epaini-liondas against twenty-five starters at sixty-six pounds and it his riding on that occasion that drew trom the great bookmaker, Leviathan Davies, the remark, that lad is the best lightweight I have ever seen. Frank Buckle is said to have ridden under fifty-six pounds when he commenced his i career in the Hon. Richard Vernons stable; and I the clever Sam Chifney, who could ride 108 pounds i to the last days of his life, is said to have ridden i under fifty-six pounds -when a lad. Fred Archer, on the other hand, never rode lighter than seventy-seven . pounds, at which figure he won the Cesare-witch . of 1872 on Mr. J. Badcliffs Salvanos."
