COMPARATIVE STOUTNESS. 75 
degree to our own, by sticking to the same blood. They have had the 
good sense and discrimination to buy the cream of our best stallions,— 
Precipitate, Diomed, Priam, Trustee, Glencoe. They adhere to the prin- 
ciples which our fathers adopted, of breeding only by stallions which 
could stay a distance ; and very naturally, when all their great prizes and 
matches vary from two to four miles. We played the same game until 
the commencement of this century ; but when great stakes were made for 
shorter distances, it was soon ascertained that “the sons of the stout old 
stallions could not win a 2,000 guineas stake against the blood of Rubens, 
Castrel, and Selim. For the last fifty years we have been breeding from 
our stoutest horses, but principally from large powerful horses with’ extra- 
ordinary speed. The Americans have bred for stoutness ; both parties 
have succeeded. I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that the American 
Prioress was last year the best four-mile mare in England, and that one 
half of the American horses brought over in the last two years to do a 
good thing cannot last over three-quarters of a mile. Such is the lottery 
of breeding racehorses. Venison, the best four-mile horse of his year 
(excepting Slane), was got by a speedy jade, Partisan, out of Fawn, which 
could not race 500 yards; and Plenipotentiary’s dam had great difficulty 
to run beyond five furlongs. The comparative stoutness of the American 
and English racehorse is not yet decided. The odds in our favour ought 
to be three to one, estimating our numerical superiority: if we beat them 
we shall have no pretensions to crow.” 
Since the time at which the above remarks were published, Mr. Ten 
Broeck’s Umpire, who was then first favourite for the Derby, in running 
that race showed a deficiency in the quality which we are now discussing, 
and his case, therefore, tends to support the Admiral’s opinion. The 
Americans themselves admit that, as far as the performances of their horses 
in 1857 and 1858 can be considered a criterion, they “ had not proved the 
racehorse of America to be the equal of the racehorse of the English turf ;” 
my authority being the article on “The American Horses in England,” 
published in the American Racing Calendar for 1859. These conclusions 
have been arrived at after the experience of four seasons, during which 
Mr. Ten Broeck has spared neither money, industry, nor talent, the last 
being proved by the amount of money which he has won in stakes and 
bets during the time. About twenty horses have been in training, and 
among these he has had the luck to have one extraordinarily stout mare, 
and a first-class two-year-old in Umpire; but all the rest have been below 
mediocrity, and have only “ paid their way” in matches and handicaps, 
when they certainly have not been so weighted as to lead one to suppose 
that they are of a superior class to our own horses. I shall, however, 
separate the performances of the three, so that the reader may not only 
contrast the old with the modern horse, but also the English with the 
American. 
TIMES MADE BY THE HORSES OF THE MIDDLE OF THE LAST 
CENTURY. 
‘Hs. Min. See, 
About 1721, Childers ran in a trial, cee 9st. 2lbs. the R. C., Newmarket 
(3 miles 4 fur. Sil) ths 6 c See 6 40 
The same horse is also recorded to hese run the Beweon Course, New- 
market (4 miles 1 fur. 138 yds.)in  . . 7 30 
In 1745, Mr. Thornhill rode from Stilton to Loudon, back, and again to 
London (213 miles) in. . peo bs ea stata) 
In 1752, Skewball, by the Godolphin B Barb, carrying § Sst. Tbe 5 “ran 4 miles 
over the Curragh i Wl 5 9 3 7 61 
