HOW TO MAKE MONEY BY HOESES, 69 



he is to be guided by their looks : of course, beauty- 

 has nothing on earth to do with running ; symmetry 

 often has, but is by no means to be, depended on. 

 Action may, and should greatlj', nay, chiefly, guide 

 us as to the probable qualifications of horses, either 

 for useful purposes, or for purposes where show is the 

 chief requisite ; but no living man can prognosticate 

 what may or will be the powers and attributes of the 

 race-horse by his action ; for, except in stoutness, it is 

 only at the last extreme of effort and extension that 

 those powers come into plaj^ We may, in a general 

 way, form a tolerable guess whether a colt is likely to 

 run on, or be merely a flyer for a mile ; but even in this 

 I should be extremely sorry to back my own judgment, 

 or, what would be far better, that of others, where 

 the chance is so very uncertain of either judging cor- 

 rectly. 1^0 thing short of a trial, and that most judi- 

 ciously carried out, can to anything like certainty 

 prove the racing-colt's powers and pretensions ; and 

 even when this is done in the most scientific wa}^, it 

 can but tell us what the colt is at the time ; twelve, 

 or even six months afterwards, he might tell us a 



