154 TRAINING IN INDIA. 



winner of 1866, have high action, we must acknowledge 

 that they would be still better animals, if they possessed 

 more of a " daisy-cutting " style ; for any undue bend- 

 ing of the knees must tend to shorten the stride. Of 

 course, the converse of all this, also, holds good ; as 

 we saw in 1871, when Colonel Macpherson's g. a. h. 

 Malabar won the Dehra Doon Derby, from a field which 

 contained two or three horses which could have given 

 him, at least, a stone on the flat ; his excellence up the 

 hill being due to the fact that he had been trained on 

 it for a couple of years. When he was, subsequently, 

 taken to run on the level course at Umballa, he was 

 found to be incapable of acting to advantage on it. 

 During the lengthy preparation which Scot Free; the 

 winner of the Two Thousand Guineas in 1884, received 

 for the St. Leger, he was given almost all his gallops 

 on Side Hill or on Long Hill, both of which New- 

 market training courses form comparatively steep 

 gradients. I saw him do some of his last gallops before 

 going to Doncaster ; and although his muscular 

 development was perfect, I could not help being 

 impressed with the fact that his action was much 

 " higher " than when he won The Guineas, beating 

 Harvester, Superba, and others. He started first 

 favourite for the St. Leger, at 11 to 4, and was never 

 once u in it." I maintain that galloping a horse con- 

 stantly up hill is not sufficient even for getting his 

 wind in good order for a race on the flat. We know 

 to take an extreme case that no amount of practice 

 which a sailor might have in running up and down the 

 rigging of his ship, would enable him to " stay " even 

 150 yards on the cinder path ; and that mountaineers, 



