OLD TIMES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 54

OLD TIMES.

The following, from th© pen of Mr John Corlett, will doubtless interest old-time sportsmen who went a-racing before I sticejidiaar, stewards, registration of. io.c-

keys, bookmakers, and stricter supervision came ar the call of a much- abused public. Custanco. tho jockey mentioned, • was the fashionable rider of his time : "Forty or 50 jearo ago there were some very curious owners of racehorses. It did not cost so much to own . a horse in those days as ifc does now. There were stakes of the value of £20, if you got th© noney, 'winner to be sold for £10,' and so x orth. Billiardmarkers, small publicans, and the 'boys* who hung on to racing then, as they do now, became full-blown owners. The jockeys were sometimes- paid, and sometimes not, more frequently the latter, and clerks of the course were not too exacting 'n th©> matter of entrance fees. Everyhing was done on the 'nimble ninepence' system, and the horses were run accordingly. Practically speaking, there were no laws, the adoption of the Jockey Club rules being optional- Of an owner of this description, Custauce, in his reminiscences, told the following story : thafc time, when I was riding for Mr Ned Smith, there was a very eccentric character named Jack Abel, of Norwich. He *ras a horse-dealer, and owned a horse called Abel Jack, which he ran in a selling race at Yarmouth. I was riding a mar© called Fiction, who belonged to Mr Lumley, of Epsom. The race was in one-mile heats, and I won the first, Abel Jack beingsecond. Just ac we were at th© post 'or the second heat a messenger came down, from Mr Smith to me saying that I was not to jjo for this heat. Owing him a grudge for what .he had said about my riding in a previous race, I told the mair that I was ridinp for Mr Lumley And not for Mr Smith. Before the -man could gefc back to the start I had wor on, Fiction, and bhere was an awful . row. Jack Abel had backed his colt on the strength of what Ned Smith had told him, and consequently thought that the latter had doubled him, instead of which poor Ned had lost his money as well, counting on my stopping the mare; for that heat. Jack Abel, however, never forgave him, and they had a fight at Newmarket afterwards over the affair. Jack called Ned a "willan and a rogue," which the latter resented, and they had a eet-to ' in Jarvis's booth, which at that time was the only place of refreshment on the Heath.' "