TO GET THE SUN INTO A HORSE’S COAT, phr. (racing).—Explained by quot.
1889. Evening Standard, 25 June. [Sir Chas. Russell’s speech in Durham-Chetwynd case.] An owner says to his trainer, ‘I suppose, Mr. Jones, we’ll have very good luck to-morrow?’ (laughter). ‘Well no, sir,’ says the trainer; ‘I don’t think the horse has any chance to-morrow. The fact is, he isn’t fit.’ A fortnight elapses, and on comes another meeting at Newmarket, and the owner goes down again, and he sees the horse. To his uninitiated eye the horse seems as well as when he saw it on the previous occasion. In the interval the trainer had ‘slipped in a lot of work into him,’ I think that is the term, and the owner, who thinks he knows something about horses (laughter) says to his trainer ‘You’re going to run this horse to-morrow?’ ‘Oh, I think so, sir,’ says the trainer. ‘But look here,’ says the owner, ‘This is a much better class. He is meeting this horse upon no better terms than before.’ ‘But, sir,’ says the trainer, ‘he has greatly improved. The SUN HAS GOT INTO HIS COAT.’
