BACE-HOHSES.] MODERN VETEEINARY PEACTICE. [eace-hohses. 



East are as numerous, and his value in that 

 market bas not been depreciated. In 1700, 

 the tirst cross from these horses, were the 

 heroes of the turf. Look at the portraits of 

 rijing Childers, Lath, Eegulus, and other 

 celebrated horses, including the Godolphin 

 Arabian. If the artists were correct in their 

 delineations, they had no appearance of race- 

 horses ; they, of course, were good enough to 

 gallop away from the miserable English gar- 

 rans of that era, as a good Arab, or Barbary 

 horse, like Vengeance, would run away from a 

 common hackney in the present day. Amongst 

 the blind, a one-eyed man is a king. 



"My belief is, that the present English 

 race-horse is as much superior to the race- 

 horse of 1750, as he excelled the first cross 

 from Arabs and Barbs, with English mares ; 

 and again, as they surpassed the old English 

 racing hack of 1650. 



" The form of Flying Childers might win now 

 a £30 plate, winner to be sold for £40 ; High- 

 flver and Eclipse might pull through in a £50 

 plate, winner to be sold for £200. This may 

 be a strong opinion ; it is founded on the faith 

 that, whereas one hundred and fifty years ago, 

 the Eastern horses, in their first cross, were the 

 best and fastest in England ; at this day, a 

 second-class race-horse can give five stone to 

 the best Arabian or Barb, and beat him from 

 one to twenty miles. I presume, therefore, 

 that the superiority of the English horse has 

 improved in that ratio above the original stock." 

 The majority of the plates run for during 

 the last century were given to six-year-old 

 horses, carrying twelve stone four miles, from 

 an impression that a horse should not be 

 trained to run a distance under that age. 

 Before 1770, plates, weight for age, were of 

 rare occurrence. At the commencement of 

 the present century, the inauguration of three 

 and four-mile heats, with ten stone four pounds, 

 to eleven stone six pounds, formed the condi- 

 tions upon which the royal plates were usually 

 contested. The system of short races, and 

 liglit weights, was introduced by tSir Charles 

 Bunbury, and the conditions of the royal 

 plates were gradually altered to suit the new 

 style of racing. 



However strong may be the conviction, in 

 the minds of some admirers of the horse, that 

 the modern racer is deiiciieraLing:, there are 



man}' facts which might be adduced to prove 

 the contrary. As to the matter of stoutness, 

 we th.ink, from all we can learn, there can be 

 no question, notwithstanding the opinion of 

 Admiral Eons. Yet neither Flying Childers 

 nor Eclipse kept the turf for more than two 

 seasons ; and we have Catherina running one 

 hundred and seventy-one races, and winning 

 seventy-six times ; we have Fisherman running 

 one hundred and twenty races, and winning 

 sixty-nine ; we have Euphrates running ninety- 

 two ; Isaac, ninety ; Zohrab, ninety ; and Po- 

 tentate, eighty-seven. These figures are little 

 indicative of that degree of degeneracy which 

 some writers would endeavour to make us believe 

 has taken place in the breed of our racers. . 



Having devoted a considerable space to the 

 racers of the last century, we will now briefly 

 record the performances of a few of the present; 

 and passing over Fleur-de-lis, and some others, 

 wo may commence with the celebrated 



BEESWING. 



This horse was, in 1833, bred by Mr. W. Dede, 

 of Nunnykirk, Northumberland. Her sire 

 was Doctor Syntax, the winner of twenty-nine 

 races out of forty-four starts. Her dam, by 

 Ardrossan, out of Lady Ei'za, by Whitworth^ 

 Sylvia, by young Marsh. Her blood is trace- 

 able up to the Darley Arabian. She made her 

 public delut at Newcastle, in June 1835, for 

 the Tyro stakes, but ran out when in a good 

 place. In 1836 she ran for the great St. 

 Ledger, which was won by EHs, the horse of 

 Lord George Bentinck, who, on this occasion, 

 had his animal conveyed in a van, the first 

 time that this mode of conveyance was adopted 

 among racing sportsmen. Beeswing ran eight 

 seasons, starting sixty-four times, and winning 

 fifty. She netted to her owner, seven thousand 

 and eighty pounds. 



ALICE HAWTHORN. 



This fine animal was foaled in 1838, and 

 bred by Mr. John Plummer. Her sire was 

 Mully Moloch, the victor over some of the 

 be.^t horses of his day. In 1854, in his twenty- 

 fourth year, he figures before the world as the 

 sire of eighty-two winners, of whom Alice 

 Hawthorn was the most famous. Her dam 

 was Eebecca, by Lottery. Alice started sixty- 

 nine times, and won fifty and a-half races, 



83 



