42 FLAT-RACING EXPLAINED. 



tlie colt, it being, for some unaccountable reason, 

 <iuite overlooked that you cannot give a horse what 

 he does not possess in nature, you can only develop 

 what Nature has given him. 



If this were acted up to, how few worthless horses 

 compared to the present would pass out of trainers' 

 hands! And as for racing, what an improvement we 

 should see! I have in recollection a number of 

 horses of which great hopes were entertained, but 

 for some unexpected cause their career was sud- 

 dnly cut short. 



A case in point was that of Ingebrigt, a horse 

 still in training as a jumper. As a two and thvee 

 year old, I knew him as one of the fastest animals I 

 ever timed over five furlongs on a level course. He 

 was built on the right iiues for tliat class of work, 

 and for no other. He won his races so easily and 

 with so much go that he was pronounced a stayer 

 and, as was stated at the time, capable of better 

 things, and to that end, almost as a matter of course, 

 his attention was directed. Now came what I may 

 call a "struggle between man and beast," for the 

 colt, according to report, resented the treatment, and 

 had in the end to undergo the corrective referred to, 

 preparatory to being trained for hurdle-racing. It is 

 needless to say his career as a first-class "sprinter" 

 was over, and what promised to be one of the finest 

 of records in that line of business was doomed to 



