24 HORSE-MASTERSHIP 



badly, and although by means of fumigations 

 I got them well very quickly, and they were 

 able to fulfil their engagements, Rhodora, 

 although sufficiently recovered to win a good 

 trial, had not, I suppose, recovered her 

 strength sufficiently to win the Middle Park 

 Plate, and she caused me great disappoint- 

 ment by running very badly in it. That the 

 coughing microbes alone cost her owner that 

 valuable race was proved by the easy way in 

 which she won the Dewhurst Plate after she 

 had had fourteen days more to recover her 

 strength. But this is wandering very far 

 from the condition of your stables, although 

 I hope you have never lost sight of the point 

 or the moral I am trying to drive home. I 

 am absolutely convinced — and I have worked 

 at this problem almost ever since our last 

 training, for my principal Newmarket patrons 

 resented every year my coming over to you 

 for the training, and took away their horses 

 — that this disease, which caused so many 

 of our horses to earn their ^8 hiring fees in 

 the sick lines, which caused some of them 



