A TURF PERSONALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 317, 7 January 1909, Page 4

A TURF PERSONALITY.

AUSTRALIAN BOY JOCKEY'S WONDERFUL RECORD. EIRST VICTORY AT TEN. Sometimes tile turf presents a spec- I tncle or exhibits a personality which attracts the uotico of people who ordinarily do not concern themselves with racing or his followers. Just lately a deal of this extraneous interest has been developed by a struggle ibetweea the famous Anglo-American jockey Daniel Jlaher and a little apprentice Mined Frank W'otton for the champion winding aggregate. Little Wotton is a riding prodigy. ■Fame and fortune have come to him at [ n tender age. Still on the right side of fifteen, his position, us one of the halfdozen leading jockeys is lirmly established; and as for his earnings, one way and another —special fees and presents added to the regulation charge for riding—they probably reach 15,1)00 a year. A French owner recently oll'ored Mr. Wotton a retaining fee of .C 2,000 a year for the lad to ride for him ui France. He is a sobcr-ihindleil boy, with no desire to live up to his earnings. These, as a matter of fact, are banked for him until such time as he arrives at years of discretion. Reared in Australia, and taking to horses as a duck to water, YVootton rode his first winner in South Africa. His age then was under ten years, and bodily weight 4st. Ollj. Now he pu'.'s down the beam somewhere about Ost. When Mr. Wootton came to England, the boy soon forced himself into what has proved an ever-increasing prominence.

So far that nightmare of many jockeys —privation, in order to keep their weight down—has not troubled the boy. He lives like other people, and has never done any "wasting," save for a single dose of physic on one occasion, which had such an effect that olb. move than the superfluous flesh it was wanted (i get rid of vanished. At the end of September he was suspended for a month on a charge of unfair riding. That cost him both th; championship and a new riding record, since no jockey of his age lias ever headed the winning table.