TWO-YEAR-OI.D RACES 35 



understood why entries close so long before the time 

 set for the race. If owners could wait till their 

 young horses gave some actual proof of capacity, the 

 number of subscribers to many stakes would be small. 

 A foal or a yearling, well bred, good looking, and with 

 no apparent defects, may, however, turn out well, and 

 so the owner nominates his colt or filly and takes his 

 chance, the conditions of races very often enabling him 

 to strike it out on payment of a minor forfeit should it 

 entirely disappoint expectations or in any way suggest 

 inability to gallop. Much misapplied criticism is 

 directed by ill-informed persons to what they regard as 

 the forcing^ of the immature animal. The truth is that 

 there are some two-year-olds, usually small and well 

 developed, who if they did not win races early in the 

 season would never win at all. Owners and trainers 

 take stock of their youngsters and enter them ac- 

 cordingly. 



Examination of the volumes of Races to Come will 

 show that some horses are entered for stakes run 

 early in the season, their names being rarely or never 

 found in races that take place later in the year ; for 

 other animals no eno^aorements are made till the 

 summer and they are nominated frequently for events 

 in the autumn. It will be understood why this is 

 so — owners and trainers judge when their representa- 

 tives are likely to " come to hand." There are those 

 again that give promise of early maturity and have 

 something about them which forbids their owners to 



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