THE POSITION OF THE TURF 9 



Ormonde left Orme behind him ; and Orme has already 

 sired Flying Fox, both sire and son being clear -winded 

 horses. 



Of course it has been and will again be urged that if such 

 horses as Orme and Flying Fox can be bred from an 

 acknowledged roarer, roarers are just as likely to get good 

 stock as sound horses are ; but this, I maintain, is begging 

 the question. It is perfectly true that the brilliant roarer 

 occasionally sires a great horse, but it is also true, so far 

 as we can judge from results, that he also sires many roarers 

 who have the disease in even more pronounced form than 

 their sire, and, as many of these in their turn are sent to the 

 stud, roaring is not only kept alive, but is encouraged and 

 helped. Those who attend the blood-stock sales regularly 

 can hardly have failed to notice that the Austrian and 

 German Government buyers never by any chance buy an 

 unsound horse or mare. When these gentlemen came into 

 the market for breeding stock they made soundness their 

 first object, and they will take away neither horse nor mare 

 unless he or she can pass the most rigorous veterinary 

 examination. The English purchaser, on the other hand, 

 is very often so inured to roaring that he takes his chance, 

 and, if he likes the horse and has been pleased with his 

 performances, will send mares to him, no matter how badly 

 he may roar. 



What I am much inclined to think is that roaring is 

 greatly on the increase. There are, unfortunately, no 

 statistics to prove the matter one way or the other, but 

 nowadays we hear of more roarers than we used to formerly. 

 I have been told by veterinary surgeons that there is more 

 of it, both among thoroughbreds and hunters, and all 

 hunters are bred from thoroughbred sires who began life 

 in a training stable. 



Another inducement to keeping and training roarers is 

 that many of them are little affected by the disease, at all 

 events during their early days. Ormonde was a pronounced 

 roarer when he beat Minting and Bendigo in the Hardwicke 

 Stakes of a mile and a half at Ascot, and Prince Charlie, 

 who was probably the fastest T.Y.C. horse of the century, 



