EACE-nORSES.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[nACE-nOESES. 



sixty-four seconds. Carrying nine stone two 

 pounds, he ran over the Bound Course, at 

 Newmarket, three miles, six furlongs, ninety- 

 three yards, in six minutes and forty seconds, 

 when he was judged to move eighty-two feet 

 and a-half in one second of time. He like- 

 wise ran over the Beacon Course, four miles, 

 one furlong, one hundred and thirty-eight 

 yards, in seven minutes, thirty seconds, cover- 

 ing at every bound a space of twenty-five feet. 

 He made a spring or leap of ten yards, upon 

 level ground, with his rider on his back. 

 These are a few of the celebrated feats of this 

 famous horse, which, in 1741, died at the age 

 of twenty-six. 



BLEEDING CHILDERS. 

 Bleeding Childers, so called from his fre- 

 quent bleedings at the nose, afterwards called 

 Young Childers, and finally Bartlett's Chil- 

 ders, was full brother to Flying Childers. He 

 was never trained ; but proved a very superior 

 stallion. The Hampton-court Childers, sire 

 of Blacklecs, was son of the Devonshire Childers. 

 There were, in all, six nearly contemporary 

 racers and stallions of the name of Childers. 



KING HEROD. 

 King Herod, descended by his dam from 

 Elying Childers, was of the highest reputation 

 as a racer; whilst, as a stallion, he stands 

 among the first, if he be not really the very 

 first, in modern times. He has been ranked 

 higher than Eclipse in this respect ; some of 

 his stock having been not only among the most 

 speedy, but the generality of them the stoutest 

 and best constitutioned horses the turf, at any 

 period, has produced. He was a bay, about 

 fifteen hands three inches high, and foaled in 

 1758. He was got by Tartar, out of Cypron. 

 There was another Tartar, got by Blaze ; but 

 Tartar, the sire of King Herod, was got by 

 Croft's Partner — one of our most famous 

 racers — out of Meliora, by Eox. Partner, 

 grandsire of King Herod, was foaled in 1718. 

 He was a chestnut horse, of great power, exqui- 

 site symmetry and beauty, and immediately 

 succeeded Flying Childers, as the best animal 

 at Newmarket, giving weight to, and beating 

 horses of the highest repute, over the course. 

 He was got by Jig — no pedigree of dam — son of 

 the famous Byerley Turk, and shows a pedigree 

 72 



through a list of highly reputed progenitors, 

 concluding with the well-known Old Vintner 

 Mare. Partner died in 1747, aged twenty- 

 nine. Cypron, King Herod's dam, was got 

 by Blaze, a son of Flying Childers, out of Sir 

 AVilliam St. Quintin's Selima, got by the 

 Bethell Arabian, and boasting in her lineage, 

 Champion, the Darley Arabian, and Old Mer- 

 lin. King Herod's pedigree consists of the 

 oldest and purest blood. 



Whilst speaking of the pedigrees of horses, 

 however, we may here observe, with Admiral 

 Rous, that " nothing can be more unsatisfac- 

 tory than the pedigrees of English race-horses 

 up to 1750. Although Charles II. and Queen 

 Anne kept magnificent studs, and agents were 

 employed by the masters of the horse of 

 several successive sovereigns, to purchase 

 valuable Eastern blood, no records were 

 kept, and we are in ignorance respecting 

 the breed of the royal mares. It was not 

 until 1791, that ]\Ir. Weatherly, the keeper of 

 the Match-Book, obtained a list of pedigrees 

 collected by a private gentleman. A register 

 was then kept, and the Stud-Booh was pub- 

 lished in 1808. Since that time a regular 

 account has been kept of the produce of 

 thorough-bred stock ; but many proprietors of 

 brood mares will not take the trouble to 

 register their foals. . . . The original in- 

 tention of the compiler of the Stud-BooJc, was 

 to register all the winners in the official Bacinfj 

 Calendar; but a cloud hangs over the book, 

 threatening a formidable class of rivals to dis- 

 pute the value of the orthodoxy of the pure 

 breed. . . . Although it is an axiom in 

 breeding animals, from man downwards, that a 

 fresh cross of good blood is most desirable, we 

 have failed to have made any improvement in 

 our race-horses by importation of any Eastern 

 blood during the present centuiy, simply 

 owing to the extraordinary superiority which 

 our horses have obtained in point of strength, 

 size, and speed, over the original stock." 



Herod, like Childers and Eclipse, did not 

 start upon the course until five yeai-s old. He 

 never ran anywhere but at Newmarket, 

 Ascot Heath, and York, and always over the 

 course, or four miles ; stoutness or game, and 

 ability to carry weight, being his play. He 

 ran five times for a thousand guineas each 

 race, and won three of them. The last race 



