82 THE SPORTING WORLD. 



permanent to induce owners to keep them in 

 training, for there must have been such in 

 those days as well as in the present. The 

 only attempt at an answer I will venture is 

 this ; as I have before said, there were far 

 fewer horses on the turf than now, heats were 

 almost always run for any plate or stakes, the 

 lengths abundantly longer ; so that many a 

 thorough game horse, with lasting powers, was 

 kept in training though he might not possess 

 the speed to tell in the finish of a mile, mile 

 and quarter, or at most now a days as a cus- 

 tomary length, a mile and a half race. 



This peculiar power of finishing though having 

 little to do with speed for two, three, or four 

 miles, makes the difference between a successful 

 race horse of the present day, and one who 

 comes in second, third, fourth, or no where. 



The stakes now made for two year olds 

 enables an owner to test the qualities of his 

 horse at a very early age, and such early. 



