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IN A SPORTING AND DRAMATIC CAREER Alfred E Watson an English racing critic of ex ¬ perience and judgment writes of the American riders Sloan and Sinuns SinunsIt It is in the pages devoted to the thoroughbred and racing that memories with the most vivid thrill am awakened by these reminiscences of Mr Watsons Those were really great days when James R Keene won the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire with Foxhall and when Sloan and Sims and other great American jockeys astonished English race ¬ goers with the American seat Watson says flatly that Sloans style of coming through which Tod was credited with inventing was really originated by Tom Cannon the English jockey Later in the volume in describing Racing in the Nineties Watson says saysIt It was at the Craven meeting in 1895 that the American seat was first seten on an English race ¬ course although an idea seems to exist that it was introduced T y Sloan who did not arrive in England until the autumn of 1897 A jockey named Simms on the Americanbred threeyearold called Eau Gallic amused spectators by cantering to the post with his knees up by the horses withers and his hands holding the reins within a few inches of the animals mouth He was not taken seriously either by spectators or by the other jockeys riding in the race Jumping off with the lead however he held his own to the finish and won comfortably How long ago seems now all the stir resulting from the triumphant success of the American jockeys over the riding traditions of Archer and Cannon CannonIn In one sense nothing could be of less importance than a book of this general character and yet in another it has this great merit While we are reading it we forget the war and its horrors arid anxieties at least and feel blowing put of the caves of memory the sweet and exciting airs of youth
