AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 237 



importance lie attached to the early education of race- 

 horses, by which suj^eriority and value were detected. 

 He cited Lord George Bentinck's policy of trying his 

 yearlings over and over again three furlongs, and then 

 sold the beaten lots, by which he escaped a ruinous 

 expenditure ; and in like manner he calculated that M. 

 Lefevre, the great French breeder, saved £10,000 per 

 annum. Good-looking ones, he argued, ought to be 

 thrown up after their trials and not brought out before 

 October, but the minor stock should be engaged early 

 and got rid of. It was the abuse of a long preparation 

 and running two-year-olds during the whole season that 

 was destructive. The " height of impertinence " in 

 dictating to any horse owner how he is to amuse himself, 

 so long as he runs on the square, whether over long or 

 short courses, was descanted upon, followed by a slap 

 at a noble lord who had proposed a law that three-year- 

 olds should not be allovv^ed to run under a mile, he 

 having an idea that short races encouraged the breed 

 of roarers. This, the Admiral refuted on authority, and 

 designated the noble lord's proposition a strange attack 

 on the rights of public property and presumj)tuous to 

 dictate to men as good as himself how they were to 

 manage their studs. He upheld the practice of running 

 two-year-olds at the coiTuiiencement of the season. It 

 was childish, he held, to object to 22nd March, when 

 every sensible man tried his yearlings before Christmas. 

 Equally silly it was to attempt to damage a race like 

 the Middle Park Plate on the plea that it affected the 

 Derby betting, and that two-year-olds were reserved 

 for this particular race. Nothing, he added, would be 

 so fatal to the Turf as the interference of Parliament, 

 which was powerless to dictate the terms upon which 

 the use of the horse shall take place. It was the then 



