MY QUEST OF THE ARAB HORSE 



Race-tracks to-day are kept alive for that 

 one purpose. The methods of the bookmakers 

 are almost as sure as those employed by a man 

 who throws a gun into your face and asks you 

 to throw up your hands. There is no escape 

 for him. Even the honest men who race their 

 horses for sport are his tools without know- 

 ing it. 



The Arab IS a racer, but he wins through 

 his endurance. To criticise him because he 

 is not the equal, in short dashes, of the horses 

 we have bred from him, is utterly unjust. To 

 condemn him because he does not lend himself 

 to the uses of the gambler is surely high praise. 



Yet not only the modern race-horse, but his 

 brothers of a more useful type, owe a large 

 part of what they possess of speed, endurance 

 and intelligence to the Arab. The importa- 

 tion into England of the Darley Arab (see ap- 

 pendix) , and the Godolphin Arab or Barb (no 

 one ever knew which he really was) , marked a 

 new era in horse-breeding. From them and 

 their progenitors came most of what is best 

 in our horses the world over. The Arab blood 

 is to be found in the Percheron; it gives his 

 distinction to the Russian Orloff, that most 

 useful of horses, and it is dominant in the Han- 



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