44 CONDITION. 



preconceived views of owners, they should still be content in the 

 knowledge : first, that no one is so qualified to advise in such 

 a matter as the trainer ; secondly, that no one has so sterling 

 a motive to advise rightly. If this were the general practice, 

 we should see horses looking better in summer, as they would 

 be healthier, as well as in winter. 



It will be appropriate here to instance, by way of illustra- 

 tion, a few rough-looking animals which have been brought to 

 the post in absolutely perfect condition — fit, it may be said, to 

 run for a man's life — but which, in appearance, were exactly 

 the reverse, and did not escape the public denunciation. 



I will hereafter speak of La Pique, a mare of my own, and 

 a case in point. But let us take Hermit or Virago as examples. 

 What, it may be asked, did he look like the day he w^on the 

 Derby .-' or she, when, with consummate ease in one and the 

 same day she carried off both the City and Suburban and 

 Metropolitan Stakes .-^ Or again, how did West Australian 

 look when he won the St. Leger at the back end of the year } 

 Why, like a bag of bones covered with hair as rough as a 

 badger's, on which seemingly a brush had never been laid. 

 A hundred similar instances I could name were it necessary. 

 But as with the smooth coat so with the rough — it may 

 be well or ill obtained. In these cases no amount, either of 

 ability or diligence, had been spared to bring the animals to 

 perfect condition. Consummate success was obtained, and 

 yet the eye was not satisfied — they lacked the unnatural and 

 debilitating sleekness at a time when Nature herself withheld 

 it. Surely the trainers did wisely to study the health of the 

 horses before their outward appearance. Yet the capricious 

 multitude and self-confident sportsmen bewailed the lack of 

 superficial gloss, and were, as usual, egregiously mistaken. 

 There was no lack of courage in thus braving, as it were. 



