100 THE IIOKSE. 



ignorant, or careless in giving his judgment, because lie lived 

 above two centuries ago ; when we hnd that, in every respect, 

 he rests his judgment on precisely the same grounds on which 

 the wisest and best judges of the present day, with all the lights 

 of science and all the statistics of two hundred years to guide 

 them, would determine their choice of a stallion, to which they 

 should put their choice blood mares — temper, spirit, form and 

 'performance. 



The last word I use in its largest and most comprehensive 

 term, performance in the stud, as well as performance in the 

 field. For it is not every performer on the turf, that is a per- 

 former in the stud. 



Many of the greatest winners have utterly failed to beget 

 winners. Catton, the stoutest and hardest horse of his day, in 

 England, always got soft ones. In America, Chateau-Margaux, 

 the most honest horse and best four-miler, on the British turf, 

 and, therefore, thought peculiarly suited for American stock- 

 getting, has scarcely got a winner. Priam, the crack of his day, 

 winner of the Derby, and should have been winner of the Leger 

 also, but for the accident of mud hock deep which gave the race 

 to the worthless Birmingham, has not only not improved, but 

 actually deteriorated the racing blood of America, as regards 

 form and power wherever he has altered it. 



Yet both these horses were of unquestionable blood, and, 

 except that Priam was too leggy for my taste — though I have 

 heard him called, and that by judges too, the perfection of 

 horseflesh — were both eminently sound and finely formed 

 horses. 



The old Marquis, however, prefers the Spanish horse, he 

 tells us, after his temper, shape, and blood, because he is him- 

 self a winner and a sure getter of winners. 



This is the true test— the winner, who gets winners, is the 

 horse from which to breed. 



And this brings me to anotlier point. It will be admitted 

 now beyond a doubt, that any practical and prudent breeder of 

 the day would prove his prudence and practice by choosing an 

 undeniable English stallion — say, for example Glencoe, himself 

 a great winner, and j^erhaps the greatest modern getter of win- 



