JUVENILE JOCKEYS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9340, 8 January 1909, Page 7

JUVENILE JOCKEYS.

The talk of the racing season is the success af Frank Wottom, the fonr-teen-year-old jockey, who is said to be earning something like £3OOO a year, and who, in fact, was offered a retainer of £3OOO a year by a French owner. Wonderful rider though he is, Wottoa’s records have been equalled, and, indeed, beaten, by other juvenile-jockeys of recent years. « There was the Axnercan boy, Johnny Reiff, for instance,fpromptly named the “Knickerbockered Jockey” by English racegoers, when he came over to this country, on account Of his tender years, who, when but a schooboy of fifteen was making £SOOO a year. Unlike Wotton, whose father is a well-known trainer of horses, Eeiff’s father was a tinsmith, and the story goes that ic was quite a usual thing for society ladies to go into the paddock and hug Johnny when he had won |a particularly exciting race. In America, boy jockeys are frequently paid £2OOO a year as a retainer. It is not long ago since George Odon, a lad of sixteen, was engaged to ride for Mr Whitney at £3OOO a year for two years, while bis other earnings in the saddle brought his income up to £4OOO a year, and there are at four other boy jockeys in the States, all well under twenty, whose earnings exceed £2OOO a year. Five years ago, Mr Whitney’s star jockey in America was young Redfern, who earned £7OOO during one season, although he was not out of

his teens. In the same year, 1908, a sensation was created in E'renoh circles by the success of young Alfred Botten, the Paris child jockey, who won many races, although he was only twelve and a half years of age, and weighed less than four stone. He reminded one of the late ; Fred Archer, who rode to the hounds at the age of seven and won steeplechases at Bangor when he was thirteen. And talking about child jockeys reminds one that for precocity in horsemanship the present Lord Lonsdale would be hard to beat. He hunted by himself when he was five years of age. George Thompson, the noted Englishman gentleman rider, was not much older when he won his first race; while Captain John White one of the finest horsemen of his day, rode either with the hounds or on the flat when he was seven years of age. Tod Sloan was earning thousands when but seventeen years of age, and at his zenith in England must have made £IO,OOO a year. In fees and presents one or two of the jockeys now riding probably equal these figures. Presents are sometimes very large, and it is interesting to note that Maher, who seems likely to head the list of winning jockeys, received £3oao for winning the Derby on Spearmint. John Watts, who won the King his first Derby on Persimmon, was given a three years’ retainer by the late “Mr Ahingfcon” at £SOOO a year, while Mornington Cannon is understood to have received a like amount from the Kingsclere stable.