I 4 6 RACING. 



fillies ; however highly tried in private, they are never worth 

 backing for money till they have given indisputable proof in 

 public that they retain their early form. 



Of this we have a striking example in Queen Adelaide, 

 whose youthful fame has been sadly tarnished by her subsequent 

 refusal to race in public, and yet there is every reason to sup- 

 pose that, in training parlance, * she can do what she likes at 

 home.' 



As a typical illustration of a two-year-old trial and its subse- 

 quent confirmation before the Newmarket examiners, we subjoin 

 a story from the pages of a number of ' The World ' of some 

 few years ago. 



THE LOP-EARED COLT. 



IN TWO GALLOPS. 



GALLOP I. 



A COLD, wet, raw morning in early autumn, and nowhere 

 colder, wetter, or more raw than on the Hampshire Downs. 



Just now, though, matters seem mending rapidly. The 

 rain has ceased, the dense, heavy atmosphere is clearing, and I 

 can see nearly the whole glacis-like range of Cloister Hill. 



I am standing by a cross, rudely and deeply cut in the 

 turf ; maybe some shepherd's landmark, or perchance a gipsy's 

 patran. The spell of the South Downs is upon me, and I 

 watch with absorbed interest the mist wreaths curling up the 

 combes, and gathering themselves together en masse on the 

 highest crest of the hill, as though uncertain whether they shall 

 disperse altogether from before the face of their enemy, the 

 Sun-god, or whether they shall roll down upon me in a final 

 charge, a last effort for the possession of the uplands. 



Now the air becomes suddenly luminous, as it seems to me 

 the air never does elsewhere ; then the sun gleams fitfully 

 forth, and the swift shadows begin to chase each other over the 

 stubble far below me, across the valley, and up the juniper- 

 studded side of the opposite hill. 



