The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-12-06 00:00:00

JOCKEYS' MOVNTS.

The returns of jockeys' mounts published at the
close of each racing season show that during the past
year F. Archer has again done better than any other,
having ridden 241 winners out of 577 mounts, while
C. Wood, who comes next to him, has won only 158
races out of 558. Wood and Archer have for the
last four years been first and second, Archer having
ridden 220 winners and Wood 153 in 1881, while the
corresponding figures for 1882 and 1883 were—Archer
210 and 232, as against the 182 and 186 of Wood.
Both jockeys have been remarkably successful, but
the performance of Archer ig by far the more remark-
able, for he cannot ride so low a weight as Wood, and
he has won two races out of every five in which he has
ridden. No jockey had ever before won so many
races in one season, and Archer's total would
doubtless have beer raised to at least 250 if he
ha

id not been obliged to leave off riding during
the last fortnight of the season. Archer
did not win any of the great three-Year-old prizes,
his first employer, Lord Falmouth, in whose colours
he first made a name for himself, having sold off his
stud at the beginning of the season, and Busybody,
whom he would have ridden in the One Thousand
Guineas and the Oaks, was the mount of T. Cannon,
who, though unable to ride very often, has done re-
markably well, having won 61 races out of 228, exclu-
sive of two brilliant successes upon Little Duck in
France. Archer has chiefly distinguished himself in
handicaps and two-year-old prizes, winning the Great
Eastern Handicap and the Liverpool Cup for the
Dowager Duchess of Montrose, whose colours he
often wears now, though the Alexandra Plate—which
is not a handicap—was won by him also on Corrie
Roy. But in the two-year-old prizes Archer has been
almost invincible, winning the Woodcote Stakes
and the Richmond Stakes on the Duke of Port-
land's Rosy Morn, the New Stakes and the Cham-
pagne Stakes on the Duke of Portland's Langwell,
the Middle Park Plate and the Criterion Stakes
on Lord Hastings's Melton, and the Dewhurst
Plate on Mr. Cloete's Paradox. C. Wood, who won
the Derby last year on St. Blaise, won it in part, at
least, this year, as he rode St. Gatien in his dead heat
with Harvester, while Wood also had the mount on
St. Gatien in the Cxsarewitch and three other races,
upon St. Simon in the Ascot and. Goodwood Cups,
and upon Sir Reuben in the Prince of Wales's Stakes
at Ascot. Wood also rode many winners for Mr.
Leopold Rothschild, as the famous jockey Fordham,
who of late years carried the blue and -yellow of the
Rothschild's, has virtually retired from the turf,
having ridden only twice this season. S. Loates,
who can ride, like Wood, a much lighter weight than
Archer, was the jockey of Harvester when he ran a
dead heat for the Derby, and he has been successful
on 77 occasions altogether, this, curiously enough,
being the same number of victories as he achieved
last year, but S. Loates had to ride 497 times to
do this, whereas J. Watts, who, like Archer, cannot
ride less than Bst. 81b., won 68 races out of 243
mounts his average being, therefore, slightly better
than that of T. Cannon. The principal victory
achieved by Watts was in the St. Leger, which he
won last year with Ossian and this year with The
Lambkin, but he also won the Chesterfield Cup at
Goodwood on Lord Zetland's Prism and the Novem-
ber Handicap at Manchester on the Dowager Duchess
of Montrose's Keir. The winning mounts of G.
Barret number 72 out of 405; of J. Osborne, who
now rides chiefly in the North of England, 56 out of
252; and of J. Woodburn, a very promising light-
weight jockey, 52 out of 333.