THE THOROUGHBRED HORSE. IQ 



from five furlongs to a mile or a mile and a- quarter, it is 

 scarcely worth the while of an owner to forego these stakes, 

 and give his horse a thorough preparation for, say, the 

 Alexandra Plate at Ascot. A horse, like a man, loses his 

 speed if he does the long slow work necessary in training 

 for long distances. In short, the question of staying or non- 

 staying seems to be very much a matter of supply and 

 demand. If the five and ten-thousand pound races were 

 over four miles of ground, the chances are that several horses 

 would be trained thoroughly, with a view to winning those 

 events ; but at present it scarcely seems quite fair to give a 

 horse but two or three opportunities of running in a three-mile 

 race, and then to say that he cannot stay, especially as horses 

 stay three and four miles, in steeplechases. 



However, we will not venture to dogmatise on a subject 

 which, if it be not quite impossible to prove, is at least very 

 difficult of demonstration. Those who are convinced that the 

 English racehorse has deteriorated, suggest from time to time 

 a re-introduction of Arab blood, which they assert did such 

 good service aforetime. Here it may be pointed out that it 

 was by no means Arab blood exclusively to which we are 

 indebted to the improvement in our blood-stock. Eastern 

 blood of all kinds was imported, as we have already mentioned ; 

 and the horse who has been as valuable as any other the 

 Goldolphin is said to have been a Barb and not an Arab. 

 As might have been expected, the proposal to again have 

 recourse to Arab blood meets with a good deal of opposition 

 whenever it happens to be brought forward ; but at present, 

 and so far as those who breed to race and who breed for sale 

 are concerned, another cross with the Arab does not seem 

 ikely to be tried just yet. 



It need scarcely be pointed out that it is not to racing men 

 only that our thoroughbred-stock is important. To at least 

 some of those who do own racehorses the racehorse is nothing 

 more than a machine to make or lose money, as the case may 

 be; but to other owners, and to those who have nothing to 



