488 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



The argument is but an assumption, and can not be sus- 

 tained* by any demonstrable facts. We hold that racing is 

 not the best means of improving our stock of horses, nor the 

 most extensive, and that, as to the general character of its 

 operations, they deserve the condemnation of every thought- 

 ful and pure-minded individual. 



But sportsmen, says the advocate of racing, have imported 

 some splendid stock. Granted, if you choose to have it so ; 

 but where one superior animal has been brought into this 

 country by that class, ten are imported by men who have no 

 identification with the turf, and most of them men who 

 ignore and despise it altogether. J|i fact, this latter class 

 have either imported or bred two-thirds of the horses kept 

 expressly for racing purposes. Sportsmen have a wonderfully 

 keen scent for discovering any animal of unusual fleetness; 

 and wherever they find one, no matter where or how origi- 

 nating, they are sure to buy him up and train him for the 

 race-track; and the "Turf Register ".has many famous names 

 upon its pages, as bred by this or that breeder, while that 

 gentlemen has not felt at all complimented by having his 

 name paraded before the public in anj'- such connection. 



Like all gamblers, sportsmen generally have plenty of 

 money and leisure, and ar^ extremely fond of pleasure. They 

 are great excursionists, and travel extensively. Many of them 

 are employed by wealthy men, of the same fraternity, to visit 

 the farms of the best breeders in the country and inspect 

 their stock of horses ; and if any young animal is lighted 

 upon that gives extraordinary promise of success upon the 

 turf, he is purchased at once, and his training begun. 



We have met too many of this class of gentry, during the 

 last twenty years, not to be fully apprized of their character 

 and practices. It is but a miserable subterfuge, put forth to 

 cover the iniquities of the race-track, that the chief object 

 of the sport is to improve the breed of horses in the country, 

 l^ot one in a hundred of these men ever had such an emotion 

 or purpose in their lives; neither are they capable of so 

 doing. "What care the}^ for the interests of the community, 



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