126 HOUSE POKTEAITFBE. 



not shorten his days. It would be tedious to follow the 

 record, although those familiar with the celebrities of the 

 turf that have figured within the present century, will 

 agree with me when I assert that a majority of them have 

 lived to old age. It would be an idle waste of time for 

 me to tell you the reasons for horses leaving the turf when 

 young, being better informed on that point than I am. I 

 will advance an idea, however, feeling confident of main- 

 taining it with proofs of the most irrefragible kind, that 

 no thoroughbred colt, even if put to trotting work when 

 two years old, will ever be injured unless the exercise is 

 prolonged to an extent that would kill two or three dung- 

 hills. When two-year-olds will stand the necessary train- 

 ing to run a dash' of a mile in 1:50 or less, there need not 

 be much apprehension of hurting them with trotting work, 

 unless pounded to pieces on a hard track. Take an aged 

 horse, of some of the breeds in vogue for trotting, one 

 that has speed enough to run at the rate of a mile in that 

 time, and before his trainer could get the length in him 

 by sufficient work, his machinery would be worn out, and 

 still this animal might stand a preparation to trot mile 

 heats, 3 in 5, if he ever had the foot, to place them " low 

 down in the thirties." I hope yet to see a thoroughbred 

 that will be able to speed with Dexter, Wilkes, or Toronto 

 Chief, for a quarter of a mile, and you will see a trotter 

 that will finish a race and make play of it. Why, he 

 would bowl along the home stretch of a seventh heat as 

 if he were at exercise. I do not intend to imply injustice 

 to the hero of the fastest time on record. Nothing but 

 the good blood derived from the patriarchs, Sir Archy 

 and Messenger, ever enabled him to do the deed ; and if 

 the rest of the vital fluid that courses through his veins, 

 were of the same Stirling kind, the wonderful flight of the 

 first half-mile would have been kept up to the end, and a 



