i44 TRIALS. 



therefore when once the horse that is set to do the work is 

 fairly exhausted, the other should carry on the running : or 

 how can his condition and gameness tell ? The two best 

 paces I think I ever remember seeing, were in the Goodwood 

 Cup and the Caesarewitch. In the first Schism started to 

 assist Promised Land, and Prioress to do the same office for 

 her stable companion Starke. The American mare started at 

 the top of her speed, but was not fast enough to make the 

 pace which Schism did. Promised Land lying a length from 

 the second horse until a mile from home, when he took up 

 the running, was never headed, and won in a common canter. 

 In the Caesarewitch, L'Cilligreiu made the running for a mile, 

 when Dulcibella, who laid second until passing the ditch-gap, 

 took it up some lOO yards ahead of all the rest and won in a 

 trot. In another case, for the Emperor's Vase at Ascot, Joe 

 Miller took the lead and was never headed. 



But this is a matter connected rather with the race itself 

 than with the trial — to return to which I should observe 

 that there are, in long courses, many fortuitous circum- 

 stances worthy of note. One horse, for example, may get 

 an advantage at the start ; this is usually little thought of, 

 nevertheless the lost ground has to be made up by his 

 opponents. Others, again, may lose ground at the turns, 

 or lie out of it, or be ridden to a standstill ; in point of 

 fact, from any one of these causes, the winner in a trial 

 may be the worst of the lot, and the trial a farce. The 

 mistakes made in trials are not only marvellous, but of 

 everyday occurrence. I cannot see why they should be so. 

 If you take for your trial horse one that has lately run 

 in public (which should always be the case), so that his 

 form at the time may be accurately known, and have 

 another to gauge his running I can hardly sec what mistakes 



