BREEDING. 7 



percentage of good horses 'turned out year by year, 

 compared with the indifferent and rank bad ones. I 

 refer to the running horses, or those which find their 

 way into training establishments, as distinguished 

 from the very large number that are bred, many of 

 which never leave the breeders' premises, or, if they 

 do, are relegated in most cases to cab work, as 

 worthless animals for any other purpose. 



It is a question of much curiosity why, with all 

 the care that appears to be taken, and the very large 

 fees that all round are paid by breeders for stud ser- 

 vices, there should be comparatively so few" of the 

 good and so very many of the other kind. That 

 there should be room for saying this, on facts that 

 are indisputable, casts a somewhat serious reflec- 

 tion on our breeding system, but that the system is 

 accountable for it there cannot be much doubt. We 

 have long drifted into the meshes of fashion, and 

 we all know "fashion" governs the acts of breeders 

 with a rod of iron. 



Perhaps breeders who can afford to indulge their 

 own taste, and who race their own stock, are some- 

 what differently placed. For all that, even with 

 them, unconsciously to themselves it may be, to a 

 large extent they are the slaves of their own imag- 

 ination, that "fashion" should alone dictate their 

 stud policy. 



