BIG AND LITTLE YEARLINGS CONTRASTED. 73 



honourable and unflinching sportsman, deservedly esteemed) 

 and as their horses race as two-year-olds, they must follow 

 our plan and break them not only as yearlings, but, I 

 imagine, about the same time of the year as we do, if not 

 earlier. So much said, a few additional facts occur to me, 

 as perhaps of interest to show the proper treatment of the 

 yearling in the paddock, as also to establish the fact of the 

 precocity of some horses and the length of time others will 

 take to reach maturity. 



In the paddock small yearlings generally show to the 

 best advantage, for the larger ones will seldom exert them- 

 selves. But this is a poor criterion of real merit. Lord 

 George Bentinck gave much attention to this subject (as he 

 did to most turf matters), and paid dearly for his credulity. 

 He used, as some men do now, to let several yearlings loose 

 together side by side at the extreme end of the paddock ; 

 and the one that was first across it, he generally took for the 

 best, and heavily engaged him. Foozool, a compact little 

 horse, was, from this circumstance, thought to be good, and 

 engaged accordingly ; but he turned out moderately, and 

 many he could beat in the paddock, in after life could beat 

 him, and very easily. Pyrrhus the First, to look at in the 

 paddock, was the slowest of the slow, and all that were with 

 him then were apparently better ; yet not one was worth a 

 guinea, whilst he won the Derby. 



These opposite instances show the little reliance to be 

 placed on the galloping of yearlings in the paddock, in which, 

 it may be said, there is nothing to rouse the indolent ; the 

 big ones being, as a rule, content to yield the palm to their 

 light-hearted and ambitious httle companions. But at 

 exercise the real merits may be gauged with some degree 

 of accuracy. 



