544 THE HORSE. 



amusement, and involving the hazard of incredible sums of 

 money. Those of Bath, Chester, Liverpool, Harwich, Man- 

 chester, Wolverhampton, are familiar by name to most per- 

 sons in this country. That of the Curragh of Kildare in Ire- 

 land is at the little town of Kildare, on the great road lead- 

 ing from Dublin to Limerick. The ground on which the races 

 are held is a noble undulating down, six miles in length by 

 two in breadth, which, for all the requisites of running and 

 training, is deemed superior to Newmarket itself. There 

 are five meetings within the year at the Curragh, at which 

 many fine horses run, where a large crowd of all kinds of 

 persons collects, and where much dangerous betting takes 

 place. 



The horses, it has been seen, which are capable of en- 

 gaging in these contests, are a peculiar variety, whose cha- 

 racters have been acquired by a mixture of the blood of the 

 lighter horses of other countries with that of the pre-existing 

 race, and then by continued breeding between the individuals 

 of the mixed lineage. The variety thus formed has become 

 a caste, whose comparative freedom from intermixture is 

 ensured by its superiority for the purposes to which it is 

 destined over the races of inferior breeding. But the latter, 

 although they cannot engage on equal terms with the swifter 

 breed, may do so with one another. Hence races have been 

 established for horses that are not thoroughbred. To this 

 class of half-bred horses has been applied the absurd term 

 Cocktails. The races for half-bred horses have now become 

 very common at the different race-courses of the kingdom, 

 with the exception of Newmarket, where their introduction 

 has been always resisted. This kind of race has never been 

 regarded with much favour by sportsmen. Obj ection s to it are, 

 the frauds to which it gives rise, and the disputes of which 

 it is productive. It is very difficult to prove that a horse is 

 thoroughbred, if the owner chooses to conceal or falsify the 

 pedigree. Hence thoroughbred horses may be fraudulently 

 introduced into this class of races. The consequence is, that 



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