ENGLISH VERSUS ARAB THOROUGHBREDS 23 



of twenty-five miles and died. This race was run in 

 1825, near St. Petersburg." ' 



This challenge was not accepted by the English 

 horse-owners, as appears from the following letter, 

 which appeared in BelVs Life of August 24, 1851 : 



'About eighteen months ago, Abbas Pasha, the 

 Governor of Egypt, challenged the Jockey Club to 

 run their English horses against his Arabs for a dis- 

 tance of not less than eight to ten miles over very 

 fair ground for a sum of 5,000?. to 50,000L, money 

 down, weight optional to either party, allowing also 

 a start of three hundred yards to the English horses. 

 This challenge was not accepted by the Jockey Club, 

 nor did they offer it to any other gentleman, conse- 

 quently the Viceroy thought they were afraid to meet 

 him. As many of your readers, however, must be 

 interested in knowing what an English thoroughbred 

 horse can do amongst the Arabs, I send you an ex- 

 tract of a letter from Damascus, the writer of which 

 is a Hungarian officer attached to the staff of 

 General Guyon, now holding a command in that 

 country : 



' " General Guyon's English mare is thoroughbred 

 by Hindostan out of Lightfoot. Prince Lichtenstein 

 brought her from England with the mother in 1848, 

 and she is now only three and a half years old. You 

 ask me if she ever ran against any first-rate Arab 

 horses. I have before told yon that we are very 

 often making excursions into the Howran, to the 



