INTRODUCTORY 5 



take except for sprinting, and that the pure Arab of 

 the desert is unequalled — also except for sprinting — in 

 any station of life in which it ' may please God to 

 call him.' I make no claim to original research, or 

 to any knowledge whatever, on the subject of sprint- 

 ing, except that which I get from the racing gentle- 

 men themselves and from other well-informed 

 persons. 



It will, of course, be said that I am interested in 

 the subject, as the owner of Arabs, and therefore 

 that I am not a reliable authority. That is right 

 enough. As I said, I am interested, and do not 

 claim to be an authority. I form my opinion more 

 upon what I have read than upon what I know. 

 But I shall cite the statements of many, very many, 

 of the most skilful horsemen and judges of horses 

 who ever lived — their name, in fact, I may almost 

 say is legion. I shall cite many, because the belief 

 in the thoroughbred cult is so great and so widely 

 spread, owing to the craze for gambling racing, that 

 nothing but absolute demonstration often repeated 

 will get rid of it in Australia. As a very great advo- 

 cate. Lord Abinger, when at the Bar, replied in effect 

 to one who asked him why he repeated himself so 

 much in his speeches to the jury : ' You see, there 

 are twelve fellows cram full of error, so that you 

 have to repeat the truth again and again before you 

 can knock it into all of them.' Also the Times, in 

 December, 1903, explains the reason for its colossal 

 advertising of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica' : ' Be- 



