CHAPTER 1 



BREEDING — TRAINERS — JOCKEYS YEARLING SALES 



BREEDING 



That there is no royal road to the production of 

 good horses is shown by the fact that many owners to 

 whom money has been of no importance, who have 

 added long experience and keen observation to practi- 

 cally unlimited expenditure, have vainly tried all their 

 lives to breed the object of every racing man's ambition 

 — a Derby winner. Much is written about scientific 

 breeding, but the most that can be really maintained 

 in regard to it is that by the judicious union of certain 

 strains of blood a fair proportion of valuable horses is 

 likely to be secured. When a horse wins a number of 

 the principal stakes, strong evidence seems to be 

 furnished that he is bred on highly judicious principles; 

 but all the own brothers and sisters of such a horse — 

 not only one or two, but all of them — not seldom prove 

 absolutely worthless for racing purposes, and this is an 

 argument against scientific breeding which takes a 

 vast deal of explaining away. The different sup- 

 porters of the theory of scientific breeding have 



