20 THE ENGLISH TURF 



and in all probability he lived in a cooler atmosphere and 

 wore lighter clothes. His racing merit, I am inclined to 

 think, was not so good as that of the horse of to-day ; but 

 more of his species, in proportion to the number bred, 

 appeared on the course, and certainly more survived the 

 ordeal of their first season. We may, and in fact we 

 probably have, improved the speed all round, but in a 

 great measure this has been done at the expense of stamina, 

 and judging from the number of foals born each year, and 

 the number of two-year-olds which run, to the increase of 

 unsoundness. 



Many sires are put to the stud when far too young, and 

 they are given too many mares. If I wanted to make a 

 horse a stud success he should not see a mare until he 

 was six years old, and then he should be restricted to 

 twenty mares, with an annual increase of five until forty 

 was reached. This number should never be exceeded, 

 and breeders should bear in mind that a horse does not 

 reach maturity until he is at least six )'ears old. Masters 

 of hounds seldom use a dog hound until he is nearly three 

 years old, and a hound at that age is about as old as a horse 

 of six or seven. Yet the latter, if his owner is on the 

 money-making tack, has often had a couple of hundred 

 mares by the time he is seven years old, and thus his 

 vital powers have degenerated through being ov^erstrained 

 while the horse was still unmatured. 



Excessive stallion fees are the fashion of the moment, 

 but this is caused by the fact that not one stallion owner 

 in twenty cares for the improvement of the breed, so long 

 as his horse can earn a large annual income. Breeders for 

 sale know that yearlings by certain fashionable sires will 

 fetch large sums, if they can only be sent to the sale ring 

 well grown and nicely rounded, and with any bad points 

 they may have concealed by fat, and therefore they pay 

 exorbitant fees for the blood in demand at the moment. 

 They look to getting it back by the sale of their yearlings, 

 and the stallion owner, if the stock of his horse are winning 

 many races, can now practically charge what he likes. 



The whole system is wrong, because certain lucky horses 



