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JOCKEY J WESTROPE Whom O L LFoster Foster states was one of the nicest boys boyshe he ever handled Developing Good Apprentice Riders Difficult Assignment These Days Oscar L Foster Veteran Texas Trainer Relates His Views on Subject SubjectBOSTON BOSTON Mass May 27 Oscar L Foster veteran Texan trainer who has turned out a dozen topnotch riders first and last de ¬ clared that it is a whole lot tougher develop ¬ ing a good apprentice boy today than it was in the old days daysThe The boys are just as intelligent as they ever were and just as smart sometimes I think they are too smart but they are not now as amenable to discipline and direction he said today while discussing the scarcity of good apprentice riders not only at Suffolk Downs but at most of the tracks tracksThe The trouble begins in the home Foster continued The boys get out of control at home mothers are just not able to handle them and the kids get accustomed to having their own way and believe that should be their privilege They are anxious enough to catch on with a stable but once they have landed a job however menial they all too frequently want to do things their own way The trainers first job is to beat it into their heads that they must follow instructions All this may not apply to all of them but it does apply to the vast majority majorityThese These kids just as soon as they begin riding listen to all sorts of suggestions from all sorts of people most of whom dont know any more about racing than the boys themselves and that is practically nothing This wasnt so ten and twenty years ago when any apprentice would follow trainers instructions implicitly and without question also without listening to what others told himBED him BED TIME STORY STORYThen Then there are too many outside attrac ¬ tions the movies and automobiles They have been accustomed to get home any time they wanted to with no questions asked When you tell them they must show up and be in bed at 9 oclock the kid of today doesnt like it As long as he has behaved himself while away he thinks he ought to be permitted to straggle in at any old hour without a word being said If he is criti ¬ cised he thinks his personal privileges are being curtailed curtailedIn In picking out a boy to give a chance to become an apprentice rider have always looked for an intelligent lad who has an ordinary amount of sense and is fond of horses and who will follow orders These are basic essentials and even though they may have all these qualities it is no sure bet they will succeed As a matter of fact with the improved starting gate with better equipped jockey rooms and all of that the boy really ought to develop faster than in the old days daysAlso Also you have to study the boys tem ¬ perament and disposition They cannot all be treated the same way But if the boy has the right background you can get a lot farther with him with kindness and appre ¬ ciating that the boy has feelings than by bawling him out especially in front of a crowd whenever he makes an error of judg ¬ ment I like to be a father to the kids If they dont want me to be I dont want them and dont bother with them any farther fartherFOSTERS FOSTERS PROTEGES PROTEGESOf Of all the riders Foster has developed and they include Albert Wilheit Fred New ¬ man Walter Leeds C E Allen and Jackie Westrope in former years Foster declares Westrope was one of the nicest of all his boys I pjcked him up in Kansas City says the Texan and he went on to win for himself 301 races in a single year during three months of which he was laid up could do no riding because of being kicked by a horse I solf his contract to H M Woolf of Kansas City and to this day the first thing I look for in Racing Form is to see how Jackie dayLast fared the preceding day Last in the string of Fosters proteges is Jimmy Peres a boy who came to him at a Fair Grounds meeting in New Orleans a couple of years ago and is now contract rider for Weston Adams Still riding for Foster is Harry Krovitz a boy from neigh ¬ boring Beachmont Mass The two have been virtually inseparable for all that time and while Foster has had several chances to sell Krovitz contract the boy has preferred to remain under the Texans wing And the Texan has preferred to have him Krovitz did a little riding on the Pacific Coast last winter but he was homesick and wasnt satisfied until he had returned to the man who brought him out
