43C 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



early, and the gamblers who would race anything as soon as possible might, perhaps, 

 be checked by the enactment that all two-year-old races between March a6th and 

 June ist should be selling races. In France, where the two-year-old is o-iven until 

 August, ist, it is certainly true that more older horses were running than was the 

 case in the season of 1901 on the English Turf. When we have seen such 

 horses as Common (who made his first appearance as a three-year-old) and Flyinp 

 Fox, sent to the stud before they have been given a chance of showing what their 

 four-year-old racing form was really like, we perhaps get at one reason for this. 



Mr. Porter did not make the mistake of preaching what he did not practise. 



His youngsters are 

 rarely seen before 

 Ascot, with the result 

 that the Kingsclere 

 two-year-olds very sel- 

 dom miss their two 

 full seasons on the 

 Turf. I have men- 

 tioned Common already. 

 Ormonde did not ap- 

 pear till the second 

 October week. But in 

 u country where racing 

 is made so much more 

 of a business than 

 is ever likely to be 



the case in France, Mr. Porter's reform is certain to meet with extended opposition 

 from the majority who care more for their banking account than for the animals who 

 help to swell it. They point to the smaller programmes that would no doubt be 

 necessitated at first by the absence of the two-year-olds during the ten weeks affected 

 by the suggested legislation. They have no patience to wait until by the operation 

 of this very reform the numbers of four and five-year-olds in training at the beginning 

 of each season would more than compensate for the youngsters who are now run off 

 their legs too soon. Excellence is not a matter of totals, either in entries or 

 in cash, otherwise it might be pointed out that nearly ^"480,000 was 

 run for in arizes in 1901, by the largest number of horses ever known, viz., 



"Charles XII." (1836) by " Voltaire." 



