Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-07-15
LIFE OF JOCKEY
FULL OF THORNS

NEW YORK.-One of the foremost
men Of the turf said to me the other
day, says Joe Mcdonald, Some rainy
day when you are short subject, just
write a few words about the foolish
ness of parents and young boys in
imagining there is a golden fortune
awaiting a career in the saddle. A lot
of harm and trouble may be avoided
through warning these deluded indi-
viduals."
1t appears since the rise of Jockey
Marvellous Miller, with all the news
paper talk of his enormous money
earning capacity and regal life,
craze among parents to have their lit
tie boys schooled into jockeys has be-
come rampant. Not a single big train
er on the metropolitan turf but has
been pestered to distraction by would
be jockeys and their parental guard
ians, who come around to the stables
at Sheepshead Bay and Brighton
diminutive sons some day emulating
little Miller.
Letters by the thousand come in the
mail from parents soliciting an en-
gagement for their sons as apprentices.
1t has been always thus, but this sea-
son the fame Of Miller has served to
augment the output and to bring a big
crop of cranks. AS a matter Of fact,
no fewer than seven parents, most of
them trudging along with their boys
by their side, visited the quarters of
Trainer John Rodgers of the H. P.
Whitney stable last Sunday
Only Ten Will Graduate.
Not more than 10 will graduate into
the saddle this summer. Then what
is there to Jockeys career when one
considers the future of middle age?
The butterfly life of the star race
rider proves too great a temptation
for ever the strongest character. They
spend their money and so train their
bodies and minds that when the stern
struggle comes after the heyday of the
saddle they can not take up the battle
of life in any other walk. Few jock
eys ever gain life's competency.
After 10 years of success and the
earning Of thousands and thousands Of
dollars, Arthur Redfern is round the
paddock just now, fat and detected,
wondering just how PA" Redfern in
vested his earnings in the year gonA
by. TOD Sloan, Snapper Garrison,
Hughey Penny, George Odom, Grover
Fuller, Spencer, Hildebrand, Coburn
and nearly all our race riders Of prom
'nence of the last 20 years are down
on their luck right today though they
all should be rich and affiuent. Sloan
and Garrison each made and spent
| $1,000,O00 in their day. Garrison is
now training horses for H. McCarter
Potter, while George Odom, only FIVE
years ago our premier rider and max
! ing at least $4,000 a year, is none too
strong in the worlds goods right now.
Fuller, perhaps the greatest rider of
them ALL is down and out and crippled
| for life in the bargain. Hughey Pen
ny used to demand $1,000 a mount at
| Gutenberg. He Is now galloping
horses for 500 week. Hilderbrand
| has passed out of view, while the once
great Monk Coburn is just a plain
hustler" Melbourne Thompson, who
| piloted Irish Lad in his first winning
race, is stable cook for John E. Mad
den. Hicks works for S1.25 a day as
laborer. Spencer would give his
right eye to ride Altos favorte now.
He is from pillar to post, too.
All Riders Go the Route.
| So the list goes. Isaac Murphy,
Marty Bergen, pike" Barnes all died
in comparative obscurity. Lucien
Lyme, one of our greatest riders, is
now in England, wanderer, seeking
mounts wherever he may find them.
Considering the risks of human life
and limb in race riding and the sour
future, the game is scarcely worth the
as the public knows, but it will be in
| teresting five years from now, when
his riding days shall have passed, to
learn just what his guardians have
done with his earnings. How much
will Miller have in hand when he is
obliged to look to the so years still
left in his life? OF course there are
exceptions. Tommy Burns, now in
France, and Willie Shaw, in Germany,
have been riding for over Is years.
Burns has safe investments in Cali
fornia, while Shaw is well off. Then
Trainer Jimmy" Rowe of the Keene
stable, was once a race rider. These
exceptions only prove the rule. They
] are very rare.