176 KINGSCLERE 



foals got from horses receiving Government money 

 should be foaled later ; in other words, that there 

 would be an attempt to secure that the Government 

 produce should be May foals ? " 



' I replied that I should certainly not allow them 

 to cover before, so that the earliest foal you would 

 obtain would be an April foal. I should say that 

 you want your foal when you have natural food, 

 when you have natural grass, and you do not get 

 natural grass before the first of April. 



1 The questions put to me by the Earl of Coventry 

 afforded another opportunity of repeating my in- 

 vincible objections to an excess of what his lordship 

 described as "cur system of sprint races of five 

 furlongs." In substance — and it may be added 

 to the remarks immediately preceding this brief 

 recapitulation of my evidence before the Royal 

 Commission — I said that it was bad for the horse 

 altogether ; it spoils the jockey, inasmuch as in such 

 races it is just a question of getting off early or not, 

 and not, as a rule, a question of the goodness of the 

 animal. The whole thing is bad. On another 

 point, and one of some interest — namely, racehorses 

 bred in France — I said I believed that the breed 

 is sounder in that country than it is in this. One 

 reason is that more particular attention is given to 

 soundness there than we give here. And this has 

 been the case for years. You could not sell an 

 unsound animal, mare or horse, to a Frenchman. 

 Then, they have selected their mares better. They 

 have not bred indiscriminately, as we have, from any- 



