BUSINESS OF HORSE-RACING. 89 



deleterious substance may have been given to 

 it in its daily food, it may have injured its leg 

 in some trap set for it on the racing ground, or its 

 stable attendant may have been bribed to injure 

 it, or a dozen other plans of a like kind may have 

 been devised to place the high-mettled steed kors 

 de combat. Day and night the trainer requires to be 

 on the watch: in day-time his eye must be on the 

 training ground watching the boys, and many a 

 sleepless night must he pass in feverish anxiety as 

 to the fate of the favourite, for of such is the busi- 

 ness of horse-racinsf. 



Owners and trainers of race-horses occasionally 

 have fortune in their grasp without knowing it ; 

 in other words, they may possess an animal 

 capable of winning a Derby, and yet be ignorant 

 of the fact. Horses upon which, at first, very 

 little store may be set, frequently prove of great 

 value, able to win important stakes, and after- 

 wards bring large sums of money for use at the 

 stud. To be in a position to inform his employer 

 how best to " place " his horses, forms one of the 

 chief merits of a trainer. It is useless to enter 

 a slow, plodding horse to take part in a short- 

 distance race where speed is the chief quality 

 required, nor on the other hand is it worth while 

 to enter a horse suitable to a five- furlong course, 

 in the Great Metropolitan or Cesarewitch Handi- 

 caps, which can only be won by horses of staying 

 powers. 



There are a few owners and trainers of race- 

 horses who possess the happy knack of so placing 

 them, that they win the majority of the races 

 for which they are entered. The Swan, I re- 

 member, was a horse which was always so happily 



