THE RACEHORSE. 3 



From this it will be, as a matter of course, utterly- 

 hopeless ever again to attempt to find a more fitting 

 sire elsewhere than is to be found anions the ranks of 

 our stud-horses, and equally hopeless to attempt to in- 

 troduce from any other lineage an animal capable of 

 coping successfully with them on the turf. Since their 

 quality must be about the same as their best rivals, and 

 with the addition of so much size and length, the issue 

 of such a contest could never be for a moment in doubt. 



But were we as jealous of retaining our finest speci- 

 mens of thoroughbred stock — save and except in the 

 case of our colonies — as the Arabs were of old, we 

 should not have to lament that dearth of sound, power- 

 ful sires that now exists in nearly all parts of Great 

 Britain. 



SIZE. 



Most men have their peculiar fancies with regard to 

 the size of the racehorse, and will hold out for some 

 particular limit in the standard measure as perfection. 



I am not prepared to take up either the high or the 

 low limit very strongly, as I have seen about as many 

 good little as big horses, and vice versa, on almost 

 every racecourse in the kingdom. 



Take, for instance, the race between Stockwell and 

 Teddington. The one was big enough to carry the 

 other, yet the little one had the greatest weight, in ad- 

 dition to being a little amiss on the clay ; but neverthe- 

 less defeated his great adversary after, perhaps, one of 

 the most severe struggles ever witnessed. We will 



B 2 



