FOURTH PERIOD: VICTORIA 



mere spectators, and about a quarter of it is won 

 by some dozen owners with a score or so of 

 horses, leaving the other three-quarters to be 

 divided among the owners of more than 2,000 

 horses : an average of less than ^200 apiece, 

 which would not pay for a horse's keep and 

 travelling expenses, to say nothing of entrance- 

 money and forfeits, even if the owner had no 

 other horses utterly useless on his hands. The 

 cure for this, we are told, is to bet ; that is, in 

 most cases, to throw good money after bad, or, 

 at the very least, to make the public pay expenses 

 for which the public is in no way responsible. 



On the whole, one would say that, notwith- 

 standing the wholesale manner in which foreign 

 countries at present patronize our blood-stock- 

 market, and notwithstanding the vast sum offered 

 in public stakes, both the breeding and the 

 running of race-horses are more precarious than 

 ever, and on the whole more unprofitable, for 

 few breeders can hope to get the prices paid 

 for none but very ' fashionable ' yearlings (and 

 ' fashionable ' sires mean exorbitant fees), and few 

 runners can count upon winning enough to cover 

 expenses. Moreover, the late sales at New- 



