14 THE ENGLISH TURF 



in the present breed. They are tired of the small-boned, 

 " herring-gutted," weak, flashy weed, who can only travel 

 five or six furlongs, and who either breaks down or goes 

 roarer in his second season ; and though they are aware 

 that a considerable number of good second-raters are among 

 the annual crop, and that an occasional high-class horse is 

 bred every now and then, they nevertheless are of opinion 

 that the percentage of good ones is far too small, considering 

 the number bred, and they are anxious to do everything they 

 can to ameliorate the evil. 



It must have been such motives as those just enumerated 

 that induced the Duke of Portland to pay a long price for 

 the Australian horse Carbine, and even supposing (merely 

 for the sake of argument) that Carbine is at present only a 

 partial success in England, his blood may live on in future 

 generations, and become of great value. He was bought 

 chiefly with a view to the many St. Simon mares in the 

 Welbeck stud, and mating the Australian with direct de- 

 scendants of the line of Blacklock unites the two stoutest 

 staying lines of blood in existence. Another Australian 

 sire, Trenton, was brought to England after he had achieved 

 great stud success in Australia, and this horse has already 

 sired a fair winner or two in England, Longy, Parquetry, 

 and the Polly Eccles colt to wit. 



It should be pointed out that the imported Australians 

 differ very much from the Americans, and, as far as I can 

 judge, the last-named are not so likely to improve the 

 English blood as the Antipodean horses. Perhaps it is 

 not generally known that nine-tenths of the Americans are 

 not pure bred. Some, of course, strain back to English 

 ancestry on both sides of the house, but a large majority 

 go back to obscurity and are no doubt descended from 

 native mares of anything but pure breed. The Australians, 

 on the other hand, can all be traced to imported English 

 sires and mares, and thus in breeding with them in England 

 it is a case of returning to old blood which has been freshened, 

 and probably invigorated by no incrossing for several genera- 

 tions, and by the eminently favourable climate for horse- 

 breeding of the land of the Southern Cross. 



