AND THE TURF. I99 



chafing him for a friend, on the fpeculation of 

 training him again. He was then, aUhough 

 fourteen years old, much freflier upon his legs 

 than at any period, for two or three years pre- 

 vious to his going out of training, and allowing 

 the fingularity of the opinion, I cannot help 

 thinking ftill, that under judicious management, 

 he would have again raced, near enough to his 

 original form, to have beat many good plate 

 horfes. True, this plan has been tried without 

 fuccefs ; but Babram, the brother of an anceftor 

 of Shark, in 1747 and 8, won ^any plates, and 

 yet covered mares in the fame feafon. I have 

 no idea of any poITible harm it could do a horfe 

 in training, of four years old, to cover one mare 

 in a week during the feafon, by which meafure 

 his merits as a covering ftallion would be deter- 

 minable by the ufual period of his quitting the 

 turf; a fpecies of information of fome confe- 

 quence to the owner. 



Such ufage might probably render a vicious 

 horfe troublefome, in which cafe he ought to 

 be kept and exercifed as much alone as poflible. 

 Some racers have been remarkable for their 

 fierce and favage difpofition ; one horfe has 

 been known to fly at and feize another whilft 

 running their courfe, and if I mifremember not, 

 O'Kelly's Venus received a bite upon the thigh 

 in that way : but the moft remarkable inftance 

 of this kind happened at Loughrea, in Ireland, 



in 



