44 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 



to the consideration of this topic which has, by common con- 

 sent, been deemed indispensable. 



The truth is, that the race-course was not, in the beginning, 

 so much as thought of as a bcene for the dispLay of the high 

 qualities of this animal ; much less was racing considered by 

 our ancestors as an end for which they imported the Eastern 

 horse into Europe. It was for the improvement of the native 

 stock of horses in the various European Kingdoms, by giving 

 to them speed and endurance, — in which respects no other breed 

 can compare with them, — that the Asiatic and Nonh-African 

 horse was so eagerly sought by the monarchs, especially of Eng- 

 land, during the seventeenth, and the early part of the eigh- 

 teenth centur3^ 



The race-course was at first employed solely as a method of 

 testing the prevalence or superiority, in certain animals or 

 breeds of animals, of these qualities of speed and endurance, 

 which can by no other known method be so completely, so accu- 

 rately, and so fairly tested. Soon after the introduction of the 

 thorough-bred horse, this process of testing his qualities grew 

 into a favorite sport with all classes of persons in England. 

 After the multiplication of race-courses throughout the king- 

 dom and the establishment of racing as a national institution, 

 the objects of the possessors and breeders of race-horses under- 

 went a change : what had been a means originally, becoming 

 eventually, more or less, the end. Horses, in a high form and 

 of the most favorite and purest strains of blood, were eagerly 

 sought and comi^nanded large prices, for the purposes of sport and 

 honorable competition, as was the case in the Olympic Games 

 of ancient Greece. 



At a yet later date, a second change of object has taken 



