430 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



ready'for the early spring. Dawson was wonderfully successful, and 

 soon made his mark by the innovation in the Brocklesby Stakes at 

 Lincoln. John Scott and the older school of trainers in the North at 

 once saw that if they did not follow Dawson's example they would be 

 left behind, and gradually they changed their tactics by preparing their 

 youngsters for early spring engagements. Yet John Scott owed much 

 of his great success as a trainer to the fact that he did not race his 

 horses early in the year, this success being especially marked in the 

 classic races. Thus he had his horses fresh for later engagements 

 against other horses that had been run through, and which had 

 naturally become somewhat stale by the hard early galloping. 



In the olden days there were more genuine stayers than in the 

 present, when the main object, in too many cases, is to get speed rather 

 than stamina out of thoroughbreds. There is now none of the four- 

 mile sweating or blood-letting which I have known to be practised. 

 The old trainers would take a quart of blood from a horse to cool him 

 down and to lighten him up. That practice has been entirely 

 abandoned by the modern trainer. In the old days they used to put 

 three or four heavy rugs over a horse and give him a four-mile sweat, 

 and they would scrape the "lather" off him in what was called the 

 rubbing house. Then he would be walked home in a dry suit of 

 clothing, and there " done up." John Scott was a great believer in that 

 sort of thing. He carried a lance, which I now have in my possession, 

 in his waistcoat pocket. I have seen him rub the vein up with the 

 lance and tap the blood. Then, after the desired quantity of blood had 

 been tapped, the vein would be covered with a piece of tow and wrapped 

 up. There was not a more successful trainer than John Scott in his 

 time. 



Racehorses in the olden days were, on the average, two stones 

 heavier than those at the present. Now, horses like Touchstone and 

 West Australian were, as one might say, twice the size in substance and 

 power to the present-day racehorses, most of which latter are light of 

 bone and substance and comparatively weedy in appearance. Present 

 day trainers have gone in for speed too much, with the result that a 

 great majority of the horses are too finely built. This will have to be 

 altered now that the Jockey Club are going in for long-distance races. 

 When the new laws are carried out trainers will have to train more for 

 long-distance races, and as a consequence the horses will be of a more 

 powerful stamp. Yes, the French are beating us in their horses for 

 stamina. Well, they have a better climate than we have for rearing 

 them. They have more long-distance races. Besides, in the rearing of 



