376 



THE HORSE. 



or 40 pounds less weight on their backs, beat the time in a can- 

 ter, at 1,000 to 1, and no takers. 



Tlie idea of sustaining such a paradox is idle. " Cecil " has 

 well stated that a horse which can run with eight stone on his 

 back can run with nine, against equal horses equally weighted, 

 unelss he be such a weed as ought not to run at all. 



But no one ever doubted, I presume, who was capable of 

 forming an opinion, that every horse which is capable of carry- 

 ing nine stone is capable of carrying eight a good deal faster. 



I hold it, therefore, proved, as I have stated above, that the 

 inference^ that the modern English horse cannot run distances 

 equally well with his own ancestors, or with the modern Amer- 

 ican horse, is not only a mere inference, but an inference con- 

 trary to analogy. 



There is yet another argument, and one yet stronger, which 

 I have to produce on this point, viz. 



In later years the American time of four-mile-heat races has 

 immeasurably improved. 



In later years the importation of modern English racing 

 stallions has immeasurably increased, and the stock of these 

 imported stallions are now running every where on terms of 

 equality with the progeny of the best native sires. 



And, to borrow, for the last time, from the writer before 

 quoted in the American Sporting Magazine, Yol. XI., p. 242, 

 " On a fair investigation of all the races in our country, it will 

 be found that the imported horses, and the colts of imported 

 horses, have won a full share of all the purses, and at all dis- 

 tances, including four-mile heats. They are not better than 

 our own thoroughbreds, but they are equally good, and more 

 generally cross well." 



Tliis, be it observed, is not my opinion, but that of an intel- 

 ligent, well-known American breeder and turfman, of thirty 

 years' experience on the turf. His opinion, I think, moreover, 

 will be fully borne out by the tables at the end of the volume, 

 which I have with great labor compiled from such materials as 

 I could obtain, on the plan of the English tables above quoted, 

 of the number of winners got by American stallions of time past 

 and present, native and imported, and of the performances of 

 American horses born of native and imported sires. 



