5 AUGUST 1955, Page 7

EVERYBODY KNOWS that a jockey cannot always ride a race

according to the instructions of the horse's trainer, since the race may be run in a way quite different from what the trainer envisaged. A trainer such as C. Elliot, who used to be one of our best jockeys, must know this better than anyone. To criticise publicly E. Mercer's riding of Elpenor in the Good- wood Cup was therefore, I think, churlish of him. '1 instructed Mercer,' said Elliot, `to lie fourth until half-way up the straight and then go to the front. If he had done so I think he would have won by several lengths.' I think it would have been better if Elliot had kept this to himself, particularly as many good judges thought that Mercer's tactics were correct, and that Double Bore would still have won anyway. PHAROS