'Rick' — Fred Rickaby, Jockey

Ward's full-length caricature of jockey Fred Rickaby — nicknamed 'Rick' per the caption — presents him in regulation racing dress: dark silk jacket, white breeches, brown-topped boots, and a white cap. He holds a riding crop at his side and turns a composed, slightly imperious profile to the viewer. Ward's signature exaggerations are mild here — an elongated torso, slightly outsized head — consistent with his treatment of sportsmen rather than politicians. Rickaby rode for leading English stables and was a familiar figure at Newmarket. The plate belongs to Vanity Fair's sustained coverage of the turf, where jockeys received the same monumental single-figure treatment accorded statesmen, reflecting the Edwardian equivalence of horse-racing celebrity with public life.