BREEDING HORSES FOR PROFIT 201 



drawbacks the buyer of cheap brood mares must 

 put up with, and, if possible, rectify by mating her 

 with a horse that will atone for those qualities she 

 is deficient in. If the mare is light, or weedy, the 

 horse should be powerful. If the mare is un- 

 sound, be sure and select a very sound horse. 

 If the mare be good-looking but soft, or a cur 

 who won't try, then, by all means, send her to a 

 horse that showed plenty of courage during his 

 Turf career. And if a mare be bred on unfashion- 

 able lines, and has no recommendation that you 

 can perceive except that she is going for a mere 

 song, do not attempt to warble that song, and find 

 that the auctioneer has "knocked her down" to 

 you. Let somebody else have her, for good- 

 ness' sake ; and if she breeds winners ultimately, 

 ascribe that fact to the good qualities of the horse 

 she was served by, unless you believe that you 

 were wrong in your opinion, and that the mare 

 had qualities which you were not keen-witted 

 enough to recognise when you had a chance of 

 buying her. 



Suppose that we buy a good-looking mare that 

 has not been fast enouorh to win a sellinof race of 

 103 sovereigns. What are we going to do with 

 her, granted she is a two-year-old ? Shall we 

 ride her, and break her in ourselves. All right. 

 That implies we have stable accommodation and 

 a groom, or a friend has, unless we are going to 

 start horse-keeping on this mare, just bought 

 out of a selling race. At this point, whatever 

 happens, we should not deceive ourselves, but 

 put every penny down that we spend on her, and 



