ENGLISH AND AMEBICAN COLTS. 127 



mark left that no part-bred horse might ever expect to 

 excel. 



PKECEPTOE, I must call your attention to one fact that 

 will upset all your arguments, " that none but the thor- 

 oughbred does it quite well," as Fanny Kemble said. The 

 fastest Cesarewitch ever ran was won by Mr. Sykes (half- 

 bred), in 1855. He was five years old, and carried ninety- 

 two pounds, running the two miles two furlongs and 

 twenty-eight yards, in 3:55 to a mile in l:43f. Prioress, 

 a year younger, and carrying one pound more weight, was 

 4:09 in running the dead heat, and 4:07 the deciding one. 

 So the half-bred Mr. Sykes must have run a quarter horse 

 clip, and kept it up for over two miles and a quarter. 

 Should not Dexter having at least as much blood as that 

 keep up his rate of going for a mile, as well as one with 

 a pedigree as clear as the Moon of the Mountain ? 



PUPIL. You have lost sight of an important fact in the 

 case of Mr. Sykes. The English call a horse half-bred if 

 he has only one part in sixty-four of other blood. Not 

 knowing the pedigree of the horse, only that he was got 

 by a St. Leger winner, Sir Tatton Sykes, I am unable to 

 say how much blood he possessed. Yet it was a wonder- 

 ful performance, even for a thoroughbred. The English 

 system of raising colts is still more on the forcing plan 

 than is followed in this country, adhering to the York- 

 shire motto, "that half a horse goes down his throat." 

 An eminent American breeder thus writes from Doncaster, 

 in 1840, to the Old Spirit : " The first striking difference 

 which presented itself between these and American bred 

 horses, of corresponding ages, was the size of the English 

 horses. I think I saw foals eight months old as large 

 as our yearlings, yearlings as large as our two-year-olds, 

 and two-year-old colts as large as our three-year-olds. I 

 was much astonished to find that colts a few months old 

 had shoes on, and gave evidence of having been care- 



