DETERIORATION OF THE HORSE IN ENGLAND 45 



weeks concerning the boasted English thorough- 

 bred ; and I should as greatly question whether all 

 the praise that has been lavished on that thorough- 

 bred since he has been set up as a thoroughbred and 

 put in a Stud-Book is equal in weight or authority 

 to the one short panegyric of Job on the Arab, 

 poetical though it be. 



After the greater part of this work had been sent 

 to England for printing, I read in the Quarterly 

 Review for January, 1904, some remarks strangely 

 corroborative of what I have written. The writer 

 scoffs at the idea that racing improves the breed 

 of horses. He affirms that the facts about the 

 Remount Department cannot be considered by the 

 most resolute optimist as providing the slightest 

 ground for the belief that a useful national breed 

 of horses has been fostered by the turf. He 

 affirms (as I have above affirmed on the authority 

 of our old and respected Australian bookmaking 

 friend, Mr. Joe Thompson) that in the art of 

 producing a staying thoroughbred France is our 

 superior. He speaks of horses trained only to 

 scramble off from the starting-gate on their toes, and 

 scurry over a few furlongs, in which the advantage 

 of the start is everything. He points out that 

 Isinglass was asked to carry silk — I suppose that 

 means to race — only twelve times in four years ; 

 that Persimmon's winnings were the result of only 

 nine races, Flying Fox's of only eleven. Indeed, 

 he shows it is much worse than I have above 



