IIACE-H0BSE3.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[llACE-HOESES. 



for a fortnight before the race, iii our stables, 

 that he should not run her to death, by which 

 I might have been deceived in the trial. I 

 promised him to run her only once, from the 

 Ditch-In, and, on the third day, again one 

 mile only, and then to return her. John 

 Oakley rode Shark, and Anthony Wheatly 

 rode the trial mare. Shark gave all the other 

 horses, except the mare, twenty-one pounds. 

 There were three others — my horse St. 

 G-eorge, Salopian, and Jack of Hicton. The 

 mare carried four pounds more than them ; 

 consequently Shark gave her only seventeen 

 pounds. As the mare and the rest of the 

 horses were coming down the small declivity 

 just past the Furzes on the town side. Shark 

 had beaten them full three hundred yards : 

 so much so, that I rode up to Oakley and 

 told him to pull Shark up, and go in, in the 

 centre of the group. St. George and the 

 mare had a very severe race ; he just won 

 it ; the other two were beaten three or four 

 lengths. 



" St. George had been turned out in a 

 paddock, at my own house, in Berkshire, for 

 ten months, and well fed with corn the whole 

 time. Before I turned him out, I ran him 

 with Salopian, across the Elut, and Salopian 

 beat him shamefully. 



" E-emember, every horse, including the 

 mare, was of the same age — six years old. 

 Twenty-one pounds is the test of speed ; and 

 this your colt must be able to give to one 

 which is a tolerable good runner, and not to 

 one which cannot run at all, or you have not 

 the best, or nearly the best colt of the year. — 

 So much for racing." 



After recounting the achievements of some 

 of these old racers, the author of The Horse 

 asks, "What are our racers now?" and 

 answers, "They are speedier, longer, lighter, but 

 still muscular, although shorn of much of their 

 pride in this respect." He continues — " They 

 are as beautiful creatures as the eye would 

 wish to gaze on ; but the greater part of them 

 give-in before half the race is run : and out of 

 a field of fifteen, or even twenty, not more 

 than two or three of them will live, in the 

 exertion of their best energies, far within the 

 ropes. And what becomes of them when the 

 struggle is over ? After the severe racing, as 

 it is now called, of former times, the horse 

 82 



came again to the starting-post with not a 

 single power impaired ; and, year after year, 

 he was ready to meet any and every rival. A 

 single race, however, like that of the Derby, 

 now occasionally disables the winner from 

 ever running again ; yet the distance is only a 

 mile and a-half. The St. Leger is more de- 

 structive to the winner, although the distance 

 is less than two miles. The race of the day 

 has been run ; some heavy stakes have been 

 won by the owner ; the animal by whose exer- 

 tions they were gained is led away, and it is 

 sometimes an even chance whether he is ever 

 heard of, or, perhaps, thought of, again. He 

 has answered the purpose for which he was 

 bred, and he has passed away." 



By this quotation, it is evideuu that Mr. 

 Touatt thinks, with Chifney, that the present 

 character of racers has degenerated. Stout- 

 ness has been sacrificed to speed, and the 

 horse has finished the object of his birth and 

 training, when he has won a Derby. But 

 what says the greatest existing authority on 

 this very point. 



" A very ridiculous notion exists," says Ad- 

 miral H. J. Eous, " that because our ancestors 

 were fond of matching their horses four, six, 

 and eight miles, and their great prizes were 

 never less than four miles for equal horses, 

 that the English race-horses of 1700 had more 

 powers of endurance, and were better adapted 

 to run long distances, under heavy weights, 

 than the horses of the present day ; and there 

 is another popular notion that our horses 

 cannot now stay four miles. 



" Erom 1600 to 1740, most of the matches 

 at Newmarket were above four miles. The 

 six-mile post, in my time, stood about two 

 hundred yards from the present railroad 

 station — Six-mile Bottom — and the eight-mile 

 post was clear, south from the station on the 

 rising ground ; but the cruelty of the dis- 

 tances, and interest of horse-owners, shortened 

 the course in corresponding ratio with the 

 civilisation of the country. Two jades may 

 run as fine a race for eight miles, as for half 

 a mile; it is no proof of endurance. You 

 onay match any animals for xohat distance you 

 please, hut it is no proof of great capacity. 

 We have no reason to suppose that the pure 

 Arabian of the desert has degenerated — his 

 pedigree is so well kept ; his admirers in the 



