PRIVATE TRAINING ADVANTAGES 273 



Kingsclere, and he is just the man to thoroughly 

 appreciate Borrow's feeling of almost worshipful 

 admiration for a great horse. The question of 

 betting scarcely arises out of the reference, but it 

 may be remarked, perhaps, that few men in his line 

 of business speculate less than John Porter. 



In reference to self-contained settlements like 

 his own, but more particularly to that which is 

 centred in Park House, Porter says : ' The advan- 

 tages of a private racing establishment as this are 

 manifold, but one of the chief is that the horses are 

 kept to themselves. This is safer at any rate than 

 when your stud has to fall in, as it were, and become 

 part of an immense congregation of horses, as is 

 habitually the case with trainers' lots at Newmarket. 

 In my opinion, it matters not what care you take or 

 what precautions you may adopt, it is next to impos- 

 sible to keep a large number of cattle of any descrip- 

 tion together within a prescribed space of ground 

 without favouring the generation of some form of 

 disease. And, the more numerous the crowd the 

 greater the danger. Newmarket, with the Heath, 

 lies entirely in a sort of basin surrounded by low 

 hills, and as for drainage, with the exception of one 

 watercourse which is converted into a drain, there is 

 practically none, while all impurities fall into instead 

 of outside the town. Regarded as a training ground, 

 Newmarket is at a disadvantage in comparison with 

 a down country, inasmuch as it is so level. Horses 

 that climb up and down in their daily exercise 

 develop all their muscles, because every one of these 



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