JOCKEYS 153 



Genius Genuine, in which he says, ' This should be done 

 as if you had a silken rein as fine as a hair, and that you 

 was afraid of breaking it. This is the true way a horse 

 should be held fast in his running.' To the question, 

 'Why do the turf horses degenerate, or why are there so 

 few good runners?' his reply is notew^orthy. 'Some say. 

 they think it is from running horses too young. My 

 opinion is this, that the best running mares are trained 

 till their running is gone from them, little or much, then 

 turned into the stud exhausted of their juices. Perhaps 

 drop a foal in the following year, and so on year after year, 

 suckling one foal while breeding another. The mare is thus 

 turned into the stud drained of her strength, and her con- 

 tinually breeding keeps her so, without she lays herself barren 

 a year or two by her mis-standing. This chance manner 

 of her laying herself fallow gives her an opportunity of 

 recovering her juices, or strength, to enable her to breed a 

 stronger foal. And it is the same with the stallions. They 

 are turned out of training into the stud, thus drained of 

 their nature, and the better runner he is, the more he is 

 immediately pressed with numbers of the best mares, and 

 in a manner all to the stallions at one time. These are my 

 reasons why the turf horses degenerate in strength, speed 

 and beauty.' So applicable are these reasons for the 

 present day, that I quote in full. 



