284 THE ENGLISH TURF 



Up to the middle of the nineteenth century four-mile heats 

 were common at every country race meeting, and horses had 

 to race twelve, sixteen, and sometimes twenty miles in a 

 single afternoon. I have no desire to go back to the old 

 system, which overdid the thing altogether, and was almost 

 cruel in its severity ; but we have now reached the opposite 

 extreme, and about half the young horses which come into 

 training every year are never asked to go further than a mile 

 in their two or three seasons of racing. Many of them too 

 are condemned as non-stayers because they cannot win a 

 five- or six-furlong race, but I believe it to be the case that 

 a large proportion of these horses are " choked " in attempt- 

 ing to win over a short cut, and would develop into stayers 

 — according to their class — if they were trained differently, 

 and not hustled off their legs every time they are galloped 

 in earnest. Here is an incident which shows that a lack of 

 mere speed is not a bar to winning races. Not long since 

 a certain owner had three or four useful steeplechase nags, 

 with which he won several races in the Midlands. A 

 friend came for a few days' hunting and brought with his 

 hunters a thoroughbred pony, which was too small for racing 

 purposes and did duty as covert hack. One morning, while 

 the chasers were doing a " school," the visitor rode the pony, 

 which was a capital jumper, round the course, and that even- 

 ing chaffed his host about the slowness of his horses — which 

 by the way had won seventeen races during the preceding ' 

 three months. The upshot of the chaff was that the visitor 

 matched his pony to run the horse which was admittedly the 

 best of the team, three races, viz. half a mile on the flat, a mile 

 on the flat, and two miles over the steeplechase course — best 

 two out of three. There was no occasion for the third race 

 of the series, for the pony won the half-mile and repeated 

 the dose at a mile; and yet the horse he beat won a fair-class 

 handicap steeplechase under 1 1 st. 4 lbs. only a week later. 



It is common enough to hear a trainer with good horses 

 under his charge exclaim, d propos of some non-stayer who 

 has made running for two-thirds of the distance in a short 

 race and then retired beaten, " Oh, that can beat anything 

 I've got for half a mile, but cannot go an inch further." 



