76 The Book of the Horse. 



House of Commons in a division on tlie Address, the rivals in politics and friends in society 

 met at Tattersall's, in that paddock attached to the old " Corner " which the subscribers to the 

 present sumptuous club-house regret so much. "Well, Palmerston," said the earl, "you don't 

 expect to \vin the Derby ? Two wins in one week are too much ! " "I don't know," replied 

 Lord Palmerston, interrogatively ; " Mainstone 's a good horse." But he was, his friends said, " got 

 at ; " and, like Cape Flyaway, Mainstone was nowhere, and finally descended to the useful and 

 inglorious position of a farmer's stallion in Essex, for the benefit of Sir Thomas Lennard's 

 friends and neighbours, with only one thoroughbred foal to his credit in the "Stud Book" in 1873. 



THE LIFE OF A RACEHORSE. 



The age of a racehorse, whenever foaled, dates from the 1st of January, it is therefore 

 the object of breeders that foals should fall early in the year. If one falls in December, it is 

 at once excluded from all the races confined to two-year-olds and three-year-olds, and, in fact, 

 from all races where the weight follows the age, because at one year old it is counted two 

 years old, and so on. On the other hand, a colt foaled in June would have, as a two-year-old 

 and three-year-old, to compete with others nominally of the same age, but really several months 

 older. 



"A yearling," according to the evidence of General Peel — who "can show to a fraction 

 what each horse in his stud costs " — " cannot be brought to face Mr. Tattersall's hammer under 

 ;^iOO; but this," he adds, "would not meet the expense in cases where stallions cover mares 

 at twenty guineas and upwards." The price of Stockwell, and of his son, Blair Athol, in 1873, 

 was one hundred guineas. A nominal yearling, but frequently sixteen months old when put 

 up to auction in June, will often, from the effects of nourishing food, cows' milk, if needed, 

 and oats from the time he can be persuaded to nibble, reach the average size of a full-grown 

 hunter. 



In August or September the expensive education and training of the yearling racehorse 

 commences. In the following year, in March, or, if discretion rules the stable, in July, the 

 racing career begins in earnest. At Newmarket alone there are the chances of winning several 

 stakes of from ;if 1,000 to .^3,000. Many capital horses have been and are annually used up in 

 this part of their career. 



In the second year — viz., at three years old nominally, really at three years and some months 

 — the pick of a racing stable, if duly entered as yearlings twelve months in advance, are qualified 

 for the great three-year-old stakes, in which a colt has to carry 8 stone 10 pounds, a filly 

 8 stone 5 pounds. These include, in April, the "Two Thousand Guineas" at Newmarket, 

 worth over ^^4,000, and "One Thousand Guineas," for fillies, worth not much less than the 

 Two Thousand ; late in May or early in June, the Epsom Derby, which has been worth 

 £'J,000, open to fillies as well as colts ; the Oaks, open to fillies only, value on an average 

 over ^■4,000; a fortnight later, at Ascot, the Prince of Wales' Stakes, over ;^ 3,000, and the 

 Coronation, over ;^ 1,000; and in September the great Doncaster St. Leger, value between 

 £4,000 and _^ 5,000. 



At three years old the racehorse can compete in handicaps, which are more numerous 

 and more popular than any other class of races, because they afford more room for betting 

 operations, and because the public are interested in seeing the winners of the greatest events 

 brought down to equality by weight. The Newmarket C;i.'sarewitch and the Cambridgeshire 

 handicap races arc both run in October, when a foal of January, nominally three years, will be really 



