TRAINING AND BREEDING. 



427 



Stakes of 1771 ; and no records of similar public performances in the North can be 

 discovered before 1779. The truth is, no doubt, that at a time when the Turf was 

 undergoing the greatest development it has ever known, those who were at the head 

 of it did not quite realise what the future might bring forth, and saw no reason to 

 restrain the exuberant spirits of such men as Fox, Barrymore, Vernon, Foley, 

 Ladbroke, and many more, who raced as hard as they did everything, and therefore 

 raced their two year- olds and thought no more about it. Nor have I forgotten that 

 in days when horses took their age from May ist the Derby was really contested by 

 two-year-olds, " rising three," as we should say. But no excuses can be made for 

 those on whom the 

 mantle of Bernard 

 Howard, of Sir Charles 

 Bunbury, of Lord 

 George Bentinck, of 

 Admiral Rous, has 

 fallen in honourable 

 succession. They can 

 plead neither such 

 inexperience of organ- 

 ised racing, nor such 



extravagance in contem- 



Lord Chcsteffula's "Industry" (1835) by "Priam." 



porary social manners. 



They have the lessons 



of a fruitful past 



to draw upon if they 



will only turn the leaves. I am not one of those who can believe that our best blood 



has degenerated when such sires as St. Simon and his sons are among us still. Ik:t 



I cannot be blind to the fact that gross mismanagement will spoil the best blood 



ever bred. No amount of " scientific breeding," and no amount of cheque-books, 



will compensate for wrong treatment of the animal from his birth upwards, for 



continued inbreeding, for ill-judged mating, or for unnatural conditions. 



I may be allowed to remark in this connection that the only Derby winners 

 sold as yearlings in the last three decades of the nineteenth century were 

 Galofyin, Doncaster, Se//on, Shotover, Merry Hampton, and Sainfoin, concerning the last 

 of whom it will be considered in every way appropriate that the first lady to send 



