The Ncivininstcr Case 



589 



relatively strong, and have feet and all parts 

 well developed at a given age, and these, as 

 a matter of course, resist causes of deterio- 

 ration longer than the weaker ; hence we 

 hear people saying "they are likely to 

 stand sound." Admit, however, the inter- 

 vention of causes of deterioration, and the 

 effects will, with but few exceptions, sooner 

 or later appear. The racing colt just out of 

 the breaker's hands, or as soon after as he can 

 be got into condition to gallop, and has be- 

 come hardy at his work, appears free in its 

 action, each foot in succession being im- 

 planted firmly and fully on the ground, and 

 the feet in relation to the pastern joints shew- 

 ing their due degree of obliquity. 



A colt in such a case, tried with a weight, 

 and over a distance determined by the trainer's 

 judgment, will at that time display a speed 

 which it will not excel at a more advanced 

 age, and only maintain under exceptionally 

 good management and favourable conditions. 

 The energy and speed may, it is true, be 

 maintained, like other inherent functions of 

 the animal, long unimpaired, or only slightly 

 so. But in the larger proportion of instances 

 form is changed, and some of the rate of 

 speed is simultaneously lost in the space 

 of a few months, after hard work has 

 been continued. The colt becomes upright 

 on his pasterns, his fore-legs straighter than 

 they were originally, and the movements 

 less free, and if tried again in this state, loss 

 of form — viz., of speed — will be the answer. 

 In other more favourable instances the young 

 animal appears in public, and wins at two 

 years old, and three, and, in a few cases, at 

 four and upwards. But the most favoured 

 by circumstances lose speed. Taking such a 

 specimen of power, speed, and bottom as 

 Caller-Ou, we find that she was reduced at 

 last to the speed of a fifth-class race-horse. 

 A case still more to the point is that of that 

 excellent mare. Regalia. I obsei-ved that 

 mare, and the state of her feet in the saddling 

 paddock at Ascot, Avhen she was going to 

 run with Gladiateur for the cup. I will not 

 say what I could foresee — for every one is 

 wise after an event — but to see her labour- 

 ing and tirinir behind the French horse 



was a sight and a study. Her feet were flat, 

 thined down, the pedal bones mean ; and, in 

 fact, from the spring of the previous year, 

 her fore limbs had lost something in length, 

 taken from one, and that the most energetic 

 region — i.e., the last phalange of the digit. 



Blair Athol, on the contrary, was managed 

 with more consummate tact by his breeder, 

 owner, and trainer, all combined in the same 

 person ; he was reserved for the cream of his 

 engagements, and completed his whole racing 

 career in the space of four months, beginning 

 by winning the Derby in May, and ending 

 with the winning of the St Leger in September, 

 losing two and winning one race in the in- 

 terval. The process followed in his case 

 might be aptly compared to working the iron 

 while it is. hot. 



The incident in Blair Athol's career that 

 will be longest remembered will probably be 

 the price at which he was said to have been 

 sold. After that brief turf career, 7000 guineas 

 was the reputed sum given for the horse. 

 Whether Blair Athol could have run in the 

 best company of horses of all ages when he 

 was four years old, if he had been retained 

 in training, is a question which can never be 

 solved, but great judges, as Blair Athol's 

 owner, &c., were, do not usually stop the 

 racing career, at three years old, of horses 

 like Lanercost, Fisherman, and Asteroid. 



I shall not express an opinion, nor does the 

 question affect greatly my estimate of the 

 stallion. The horse was a good one, as it was 

 proved, and the spoiling of the race-horse, 

 and depriving him of his speed, does not 

 necessarily affect the worth of the future 

 stallion. For instance. The Earl has been 

 tried and found good, and then wanting, and 

 Julius excellent and then declining, but both 

 have proved what horses they are ; and though 

 the abstraction of the eighth of an inch of the 

 lower margin of their coffin bone spoiled their 

 actions and racing powers, it will no more 

 affect their worth for propagating their species, 

 if the process be arrested, than if so mucli 

 were clipped off the tips of their ears. 



But, to return to our subject, atrophy of the 

 pedal bone is the most serious, as well as the 

 most common phenomenon in the list of 



