102 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1750- 



Pumpkin and Firetail are null and void, those horses 

 being now the property of the same gentleman,' 

 together with a ' Eider ' to the effect that ' all Betts 

 between two [? or more] horses become null and void 

 if the horses subsequently become the property of one 

 and the same person or his avowed confederate.' 



The quickest authenticated modern time for the 

 Eowley Mile is that of Diophantus, in the Two Thou- 

 sand of 1861 (when the Eowley Mile distance was a 

 mile and seventeen yards, instead of a mile and one 

 yard, which would make a very slight difference — 

 between two and three strides, in fact), when it was 

 run in 1 min. 45 sees. It must be remembered, 

 however, that Firetail and Pumpkin were ' rising 

 four,' and very nearly quite four years old on April 14, 

 1773 (when racehorses took their ages from May 1, 

 instead of, as now, January 1), and carried half a 

 stone less than Diophantus (a true three-year-old in 

 April 1861, carrying 8 stone 7 lb.), and that the 

 match was more likely than the general race to be a 

 test of utmost possible speed. The question is, to 

 what extent an advantage of both weight and age can 

 be reckoned upon to augment speed over a given 

 distance, and it is obvious that the extent is not un- 

 limited (for speed must depend upon a combination 

 of length of stride and quickness of recovery, and 

 these again depend upon faculties which no advantage 

 of weight and age can render illimitable). Can that 

 advantage, then, ever be equivalent in point of time, 



