THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 1 55 



no writer on the subject of training would now venture to 

 do more than sketch the merest outline of operations to be 

 pursued in getting a horse ready for such an event as the Derby. 

 The present writer has certainly no intention of dogmatising 

 on this theme. Suffice it to say that, supposing at the end of 

 his two-year-old season a horse is considered to be of suffici- 

 ently good class to have even the remotest of outside chances 

 for the Derby, and supposing him also to be sound and in good 

 health, he would in all probability never be stopped in his 

 work at all, but would (weather of course permitting) continue 

 steadily on throughout the winter at such exercise as would 

 have the effect of keeping him clean in his inside, while on 

 the soft ground his action would materially improve ; but that 

 exercise would not exceed two or three canters daily at some- 

 thing less than half-speed. As the advancing season and the 

 approach of the event necessitates work of a more serious 

 character, the nature of that work must (and it cannot be too 

 often repeated) depend entirely upon the quality of the material, 

 i.e. the constitution of the horse which the trainer has to deal 

 with. To the man who knows his business the words ' orthodox 

 preparation ' have no meaning whatever ; work there must un- 

 doubtedly be and plenty of it, but as to length and severity of 

 gallops and their frequency, he can only be guided by what 

 his knowledge as a stableman tells him the animal under his 

 charge is or is not capable of doing. 



A gross horse with strong constitution may, probably will, 

 require long fast gallops two or three times a week, with several 

 sharp canters daily on the alternate days ; but these horses are 

 of the ' angel's visit ' breed, and much rarer than trainers were 

 wont, or as the general public still are accustomed, to believe. 



One of- the training traditions which lingered longest, viz. 

 that a horse must more or less frequently gallop the distance 

 over which he has to travel in the actual race, is, we believe, no 

 longer a distinct article of faith with the training fraternity. We 

 can at any rate call to mind one very striking example of the 

 upsetting of this theory, the case of Corrie Roy, who before 



