5/6 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



been entered under the name of Mr. Peter Wilkinson. He was tried for the 

 race with Ackworth (Cambridgeshire, 1864), who had just previously been used by 

 Mr. Frederick Swindell to try his own favourite Proserpine, and Hibberd had not 

 much difficulty in bringing off the race. 



But I have said enough to give examples of the general statements with which 

 this chapter began ; and it is only necessary to add that any one who only studies 

 Turf facts in his Library must try to remember that what held good a century 

 is not likely to satisfy modern requirements, whether the race of horses as 



a whole has really improved or not. 

 Many think and I am one of them 

 that we have lost a lot in abolishing 

 nearly all our real tests of endurance. 

 The French, at any rate, have found 

 it worth while to keep them, and the 

 history of their gradual success at 

 Ascot is instructive. There was un- 

 doubted cruelty in the old system 

 of running heats; but then in 1750 

 only one horse in ten raced a second 

 time. By the time of Fisherman we 

 find that good horse running thirty- 

 five times in one year, and winning 

 twenty-one races, of which the Ascot 

 Cup (2^ miles) and the Queen's Plate 

 (3 miles) were run on the same 

 day. Now, it is only the first-rate 



ones who are let off lightly. Orme won ,34,626 in eighteen races ; Ormonde 

 (,28,265), Ayrshire (.35,915), and Velasqiiez (,26,385) all ran sixteen times; 

 Diamond Jiibilee (.29,185) and Galtee More (,27,019) went to the post on thirteen 

 occasions; St. Fnisquin (.32,960), Ladas (.18,515), and Flying Fox (,40,096) on 

 eleven. To compile ,57,453 Isinglass was only asked to carry silk twelve times 

 during his four years of training, and then retired to the comforts of a luxurious 

 stud. Persimmon did least of all, for his ,34,706 was the result of only nine races. 

 This may not be so great a contrast to the old times, as far as the actual number of 

 starts is concerned. What differentiates modern methods from the eighteenth century 



Richard Tattersall (d. 1859). 



