"Good," replied the jockey, whose name was Jock McBride, "we will get at him at once."
Halsey thought he was used to the saddle and he thought he knew what hard riding was, but the Kentucky jockey soon taught him that he was a novice. Every afternoon when college duties were over Palo'mine and his master were on the road. The jockey would not let them go upon the track for a month. He said that the superfluous fat must be worked off and the muscles hardened before there would be any use of getting down to the real business of developing a racer.
At first they were to do fifteen miles a day under certain conditions, then it was increased to twenty. Then twenty-five and thirty, until finally forty was reached. This long day's work could only be undertaken on Saturday afternoons and then it often took the young man until midnight to complete the trip.
But this work did not interrupt the boy's studies, for it gave him just the needed bal-
