CHAPTER VI 



MODERN CONDITIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 



I HAVE been asked for my experience of travel- 

 ling race-horses by rail. I must say it is not to 

 _ the credit of any of the railway com- 



horses by panics, except for the improvement 

 in the boxes, which are more comfort- 

 able than in the old broad-gauge days. The 

 attendants then had to ride with their horses, 

 with four partitions on the broad gauge, standing 

 up all the journey. The journey from Marl- 

 borough to Newmarket, via Didcot and Oxford, 

 usually takes from eight o'clock to four ; very 

 often the boxes are left in the siding for three 

 quarters of an hour, and sometimes at Cambridge 

 for hours. On one occasion I had a mare left 

 there all night. The Stable backed her heavily 

 next day, and she was third ; had she got through 

 the same day, she would have won. The only 

 stable my man could get at Cambridge was a 

 dirty stall next to a hack, with but little ventila- 

 tion. This strange horse so upset my mare that 



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