09 



THE RACE-HORSE. 



Eclipse blood ; and to the Wellesley Arabian, 

 believed to be a Persian horse, to the only real 

 advantage gained to English race-horses, by a 

 foreign cross, in later years. It must, however, be 

 observed, that the most famous horses of the last 

 century, such as Childers, Old Crab, Eclipse, and 

 King Herod, did not appear on the Turf before 

 they were five years old ; which leads us to sup- 

 pose, that the failure of horses subsequently bred, 

 as they themselves were bred, from Oriental blood, 

 and trained at an early age, may, in great part, be 

 attributed to the fact, of the immediate produce of 

 such horses requiring more time to come to matu- 

 rity, or even to a certain degree of maturity, than 

 those, like our present breed of race-horses, farther 

 removed from such blood ; and the cause may be 

 attributed to climate. It is reasonable to suppose, 

 that the produce of stallions and mares bred in the 

 Torrid Zone, would come slower to perfection in a 

 damper and colder country than it would have done 

 in its own ; and we may infer from this, that, in 

 proportion as horses were brought earlier to the 

 post, and races shortened in distance, Eastern blood 

 got into disrepute. 



As to the comparative speed of Arabian and 

 English race-horses, England is not the arena on 

 which it can be fairly decided, inasmuch as the 

 total chano^e of food, svstem, and climate, must 

 operate more powerfully on the Arab brought to 

 Eualand after a certain as^e, than on the English 

 horse, taken to India under similar circumstances, 

 for reasons too obvious to require to be mentioned. 



