BRITISH TURF. K^7 



the real supporters of the Turf; and for very good 

 reasons. 



In the first place, what are termed half-bred 

 stakes (some of which are of large value) have led 

 to a great many frauds being committed, as horses 

 have been brought to run for them, under false 

 pedigrees and false age ; which must ever be 

 the case, from the great difficulty of proving a 

 horse to be thorough bred, where the owner, for 

 his own dishonest purposes, has carefully removed 

 all traces of his origin. We find therefore that 

 for the most part, cock-tails are in the hands of 

 third rate trainers, horse dealers, and what are called 

 at the present day, gentlemen riders, and that con- 

 tinual disputes and unpleasantness arise out of 

 half-bred stakes, — frequently to the disgust of a ge- 

 nuine sportsman, who may by chance happen to 

 have entered a horse for the same stake. Besides 

 this the breeding of these horses is a direct injury 

 to the country, as it encourages a spurious breed of 

 horses, instead of the blood horse, the great object 

 of racing. Were what are now called cock-tail 

 stakes only used for what they were originally in- 

 tended, viz. for hunters, there would be no reason 

 to complain. Real hunters' stakes would be advan- 

 tageous, if open to all horses that had been regular- 

 ly hunted for a season, (not merely ridden by a boy 

 to see a fox found, or cantered on the road to see a 

 stag taken) and giving no allowance to the cock- 



