108 VARIETIES OF THE HORSE 



before a certain date. The institution of so many valuable stakes in 

 recent times has had the effect of encourao-ino; owners to avoid meetino- a 

 dangerous opponent, by saving their animals for other engagements in 

 which the dreaded horse, or horses, may not be entered, and this very 

 greatly increases the difficulty in comparing the merits of many public 

 performers. Tlie time test is always unreliable, for, placing on one side 

 the extreme difficulty of .starting the watch at the moment of starting 

 and finishing a race, there are no possible means for making allowances 

 for the little accidents which occur whilst running, but which may make 

 a good horse's time slow, or a moderate one's fast. As a consequence, 

 we find quite second-rate horses the possessors of records which cannot 

 be approached by those held by animals which would have beaten them 

 by many lengths had they met when the " fastest time" was accomplished; 

 and therefore, with all due respect to our cou.sins across the Atlantic, 

 who place almost implicit confidence upon the clock, the opinion may be 

 repeated that, as a means of arriving at a conclusion concerning the merits 

 of different horses, the time test is not to be relied upon. In the old 

 days, before the advent of .stop-watches and professional time-keepers, 

 the reported records were even more unreliable still, and in fact cannot 

 be accejjted seriou.sly by persons who set themselves the task of analysing 

 form, and who may be pardoned for expressing their disbelief in the 

 ability of even that great horse Eclipse to cover 4 miles at an average 

 speed of something like 80 feet a second. 



At the same time, there are reasonable grounds for believino- that there 

 were far more stayers running at the commencement of the nineteenth 

 century than can be found at the present time, but it is questional)le 

 nevertheless whether this may not be in a great measure due to the fact 

 that it is an exceptional circumstance for a modern race-horse to be trained 

 for a long race. The shorter events are still so decidedly in the majority 

 that there is very little inducement for an owner to try and find out 

 whether his horse can stay over a long distance; and therefore, doubt- 

 less owing to there being no encouragement to test his merits, many 

 an animal possessed of stamina is regarded as being quite a second-rater, 

 though if he had been given a proper chance for distinguishing himself 

 he might have won almost undying fame. 



It certainly is to be hoped that this is the case, for, as the Thorough- 

 bred is largely utilized as a cross for other varieties of horse, and notably 

 in the production of the Hunter, it is evident that the services of a sire 

 that is not only bred to stay, but can stay, are more valuable than those 

 of animals which could not have got beyond six furlongs in their racing 

 days. On the other hand, there are good and solid grounds for believing 



