HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 35 



most of our best steeple-chasers have hailed — not of the old 

 half-bred sort, but clean-bred horses, whose schooling is far 

 better understood in that country than in England ; and in 

 addition to these a few flat-racers have come over to us, and 

 held their own with, if not defeated, our chosen champions ; 

 Barcaldine by Solon out of Ballyroe, and Bendigo by Ben 

 Battle out of Hasty Girl, are amongst the latest and perhaps 

 the best specimens which have crossed the water. 



Of Barcaldine indeed it may be said that through Tristan, 

 whom he easily defeated, he has beaten all the best horses in 

 Great Britain and France — no mean feat for one hailing from 

 a country which is stigmatised by a writer at the end of the 

 last century as incapable of breeding horses ! 



Furthermore, a quotation from a work by Mr. Osborne, 

 pubhshed in 1 88 1, and entitled 'The Horse-breeder's Hand- 

 book ' (a valuable addition to the breeder's library), will show 

 the reader that the Sister Isle has had its fair share in pro- 

 pagating our best blood. Mr. Osborne says : 



For th^ fine horses that now dominate the British turf we are 

 principally indebted to Touchstone, Birdcatcher, and Harkaway. 

 Passing aside the doings of the former at the stud, so well known 

 to every breeder in the United Kingdom, I may here relate some 

 particulars not generally known respecting Echidna, and how 

 Birdcatcher came to be mated with her — a union the result of 

 which was The Baron, who begat Stockwell, the most successful 

 sire of all time. For The Baron, as well as his dam, the British 

 stud is indebted to the excellent judgment of Mr. Watts, of Jockey 

 Hall, Curragh, a Devonshire gentleman who, early in the century, 

 settled in Dublin, where he practised the veterinary art with great 

 success, and soon enjoyed a degree of popularity never previously 

 awarded to any member of his profession. Though born in the 

 sunny south, Mr. Watts might have hailed from Yorkshire, so 

 great was his love for the thoroughbred ; and being in the enjoy- 

 ment of the friendship of many of the leading patrons of the turf, 

 he soon commenced breeding racing stock — at first in conjunction 

 with Mr. Robert Gore, and subsequently on his own account, when 

 so great was his success that the ' all scarlet '" soon became one of 

 the most popular colours at the Curragh. Mr. Watts imported 



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