WHAT MAKES HORSKS FAST. 2f{ 



4:^. — At first sight these facts may appear to prove that the 

 race course has done and will do nothing to improve or sustain 

 a superior breed of horses, and yet it is not so. Fortniuitely tlie 

 one thin^' required by the gamblers cannot be obtained alone. 

 There must be docility enough to make the horse controllable 

 under the utmost excitement ; there must be toughness enough 

 to stand the racket of tlie most trying pace, and the wear and 

 tear of severe training ; there must be digestive organs good 

 enough to supply the best possible blood ; tlierc must be animal 

 brain and moter nerves of high quality ; and above all there 

 must be heart and lungs good enough to completely oxygenize 

 a large supply of blood in the least possible time. Now all these 

 are qualities that add to the value of any horse, and many of 

 tlieui are qualities that the eye of the best judge could never 

 estimate with the certainty with which they are proved on the 

 racecourse. Men could judge something of the bones, sinews, 

 muscles, and form of the horse, and in so doing often expected 

 to select with certainty the best, but experience proved that 

 they could not do so. The brain, the nerves, the heart, and the 

 lungs were always out of sight, and the best judges were always 

 at fault. They condemned the Godolphin Arabian to a shop 

 keepers cart, and refused to use him as a sire until ten years old, 

 when Lath, his then only son by a good mare, proved on the 

 race course that his father had latent qualities which fitted him, 

 as they had destined him to be the progenitor of the most 

 successful animals that have since figured in the British Stud 

 Book. 



Eclipse was never trained until five years old, and qualities 

 which enabled him to enrich more than one owner, and to 

 distance all competitoi's, were only discovered by trial and 

 competition. 



43. — There is one great defect which racing meu can tolci'ate 

 jn the horse, and that is low, unsafe action. They even like it, 

 because it enables the horse to get over a distance with less 

 exertion. This is a defect which makes many a race horse of 

 little value for any other purpose. Another mislortune is that 

 the mere racing or gambling machine need not be large. A small 



