anced, capable of producing perfect chargers, which the 

 present thoroughbred is, more times than not, incapable 

 of doing. 



" We cannot see how the abuse of two-year-old rac- 

 ing and of purely sprint racing could have influenced so 

 strangely the general conformation of the thoroughbred, 

 since pure sprinters occupy but a secondary place in the 

 stud, and generally have not produced the sires who per- 

 petuate the breed. 



" In going back over the pedigrees of most of the 

 cracks of each generation in France or in England, it is 

 easy to see that from father to father, the really good 

 horses descend from winners of the Derby, and in the 

 female line itself it is descent from blue ribbon holders 

 that is always the best recommendation. 



" In our humble opinion the truth is that over short 

 distances, as well as over intermediate or long distances, 

 horses run infinitely faster to-day than formerly. Now 

 an exaggerated slope of the radii, carrying with it long 

 and slow strides, has become detrimental to high speed. 

 This conformation is destined to disappear from sprint- 

 ers as well as from stayers. The superiority of the latter 

 over the former is that their power of nervous reinforce- 

 ment, their high quality permits them to last longer than 

 the former at the same pace. 



" There are long striding and short striding sprinters 

 as well as stayers. 



" Why, since Tenebreuse has been called to our atten- 

 tion should we not evoke the memory of the Prix Glad- 

 iateur, when Le Sancy, the very type of the lamented 

 old-time thoroughbred, using his cadenced. long, elastic, 

 strides, stopped like a dog, while the mare, who seemed 

 only to be scratching gravel alongside of him, unfalter- 

 ingly kept on with her choppy gait, which, however, was 

 far from being that of the sprinter? 



68 



