TRAINING AND BREEDING. 



431 



3,957, as compared with 2,105 in lS 9O, and 2,569 in 1870, when hunters' flat races 

 were included in the returns. Mr. Porter's, I fear, was a voice crying .in the 

 wilderness, and for some time longer his sound views on the two-year-olcl are as 

 unlikely to become popular as his equally correct opinions on breeding. " Audax" 

 has frequently advised, in " Horse and Hound," that no two-year-olcl should be 

 allowed to race more than half a mile before June ist, as this short distance would not 

 be likely to hurt a backward youngster. Certainly, in the days to which he thus 

 desires to revert, there were such cracks racing for half a mile as (in 1866, for 

 instance) Achievement, Hermit, and The Rake, who all came out before the ist of 

 May. But the subject 

 is slightly too contro- 

 versial, on the whole, 

 for these pages. 



The publication ot 

 the entries for 1902 

 was noticeable for 

 the fact that H i s 

 Majesty the King 

 was represented in 

 the Gold Cup at 

 Ascot, the Newmarket 

 Meetings, and the 

 Grand National, and 

 the year was made 

 memorable as early 



as March by the first victory won by a monarch of these realms for sixty years 

 upon the English Turf, when Ambush II. won for King Edward VII. in the Stand 

 Steeplechase at Kempton Park. An accident put that good horse out of the 

 running for the Grand National, but his name will always be connected with the suc- 

 cessful return to the Turf of the sovereign who had made so brilliant a record 

 there when he was Prince of Wales. 



But the most interesting, if not sensational, occurrences of 1902 centred round 

 Mr. Sievier's flying filly Sceptre, whose purchase as a yearling at record price 

 has already been mentioned. As an example of private and amateur training by 

 her owner she would deserve mention in this place, entirely apart from performances 



"Coronation" (1838) by ' Sir Hercules." 1 



