COMPARATIVE STOUTNESS. 77 
age and weight, he having run at the rate of thirteen seconds and a half 
per furlong, nearly, while Blink Bonny’s Derby time is, as near as may be, 
thirteen seconds and three-quarters per furlong. We have no reliable 
record of any horse having run any distance over a mile at so fast a rate 
as this. Childers and Eclipse are said to have each run a mile in a minute, 
but this is manifestly absurd, and if the former could only run the Beacon 
Course, in a trial, at the rate of thirteen seconds and three-quarters per 
furlong, and the Round Course, in an actual race, at a still slower pace, it 
is absurd to suppose that he could run a mile in sixty seconds, or at very 
nearly double this rate. It has been ascertained by experience that a 
horse loses his pace for moderately short distances if he is strained to the 
utmost for three or four miles, and our trainers are therefore careful intrying 
the extreme length which their horses can get. Long courses have been 
given up almost entirely for this reason, among others, and because also, 
in particular, it has been found that the competing horses do not really 
race for more than half or a quarter of the distance ; consequently, we 
have no true test in England beyond two miles four furlongs, which have 
been run over the somewhat severe course of Ascot by West Australian 
and Kingston, at the rate of thirteen seconds and a quarter per furlong, 
the latter horse carrying nine stone. This feat will most triumphantly 
contrast with any performance of ancient or modern times, either in 
England or America, for it will be found on examination to be from three- 
quarters to half a second per furlong faster than the recorded rate of Childers, 
and half a second faster than Lexington, even with the advantage of a 
running start, and carrying seven stone five pounds as a four-year-old, against 
Kingston, five-year-old, with nine stone. We may, therefore, assume that 
some, at all events, of our modern horses are capable of successfully contend- 
ing with the American horses at any reasonable distance, for the latter have 
never yet come up to the time made in this country, either here or in 
America, and without an allowance of at least a stone they have never yet 
had a chance, with the exception of Umpire in his two-year-old career. 
My belief is that early training for short distances interferes with the 
chance of any individual horse doing a long distance in the shortest 
possible time, but the power remains in the breed, and can at any time 
be developed in a sound horse of the stoutest blood we possess. Unfor- 
tunately, of late years, speed has been all in all, and we have too much 
neglected the stout old strains of Waxy and Tramp for that of the three 
sons of Buzzard—Selim, Castrel, and Rubens. The Jockey Club, however, 
at the instigation of Lord Redesdale, have it in contemplation to prevent 
two-year-old races early in the year, and I trust that by this and other 
regulations a stop may be put to the course of events which certainly 
seem to have a tendency to produce the mischief which, however, is not 
yet finally accomplished. I am afraid that there would be some difficulty 
in now getting twenty-eight horses to repeat Mr. Osbaldeston’s feat, which 
I have inserted as one proof of the stoutness of our modern breed ; but 
this would be entirely a matter of price, for there are plenty of thorough- 
bred hunters which are capable of effecting it, the value of such animals 
being about 300/. apiece, and few owners would therefore lend them. 
Lord Redesdale seems entirely to have overlooked the enormous increase 
of this class of horses within the last forty years. Prior to that time a 
thoroughbred hunter was only to be met with, as a rule, in the great grass 
countries, and ‘‘the provincials” were contented with half-breds, which 
were supposed to be, and really were, better able to get over the great 
sprawling fences and other difficult jum.ps which were to be found at every 
