VENISON. 365 



Btud, than for his performances on the tni-f ; in the former ca- 

 pacity he was far distinguished above the average of his con- 

 temporaries. This also serves as an example, of which there are 

 many modern instances, that a horse having won a great num- 

 ber of races is not invariably the most successful in his pro- 

 geny; a horse that has won a moderate number of races, 

 beating known good ones, is generally the most eligible to breed 

 from. It is very generally considered that training horses to 

 run at so early an age as two or even three years old, must be 

 injurious to them ; that their joints and sinews wanting maturi- 

 ty, must suffer and give way, consequently their racing career 

 must be abbreviated. The means nowadays adopted with 

 foals, from their infancy, are calculated very essentially to ob- 

 viate the effects of early training ; the kind of food with which 

 they, and also their dams are supplied, has the effect of produ- 

 cing early development, added to the almost imperceptible 

 gi-adations of exercise which they are required to perform ; 

 these are subjects, which were unknown to our forefathers, but 

 they will be more fully discussed hereafter. The impression 

 that this custom shortens the term of a horse's racing career, 

 will lose ground on reference to the table already given, which 

 shows that out of five horses of modern times three commenced 

 their running at two years old, and the others at three. 



" Their continuance on the turf, fully equals that of their 

 ancestors, with the exception of Yenison, whose three-year-old 

 performances were so superlatively excellent as to render him 

 worthy of especial notice. At that age he won twelve races, 

 many of them at long distances, including five king's plates. 

 Vans and railways not being in vogue, he travelled on foot 900 

 miles in the course of the year to i^erform his engagements. 

 He ran third to Bay Middleton and Gladiator for the Derby, 

 and I perfectly remember the remark made by his trainer, Mr. 

 John Day, on the morning previous to the race. ' I have a good 

 horse,' said he, ' and it must be a very good one to beat him.' 

 Although Bay Middleton proved himself a better horse on that 

 occasion, the subsequent running of Venison, thoroughly justified 

 the estimate his trainer had formed of him. In the stud he 

 attained still greater eminence, being the sire of Alarm, Cari- 

 boo, the Ugly Buck, Vatican, Buckthorn, Kingston, Joe Miller, 



