298 The American Tboroiigbbred 



and that subtle essence, that knowledge how to 



do and will to command it, blends with the 



powers of the beast and makes all things done. 



So with foot racers, when they have known that 



nine miles within the hour could be increased to 



ten, and the ten to eleven. They were the same 



men, without any improvement in their breed, 



the same men who had once been able barely to 



do nine. 



" Shall we be told that the Bonny Black Bess of 



the bold Turpin did not respond to her master's 



spirit when she took her wondrous bound over 



the spiked turnpike gate, or that a portion of the 



soul of the brave Mameluke, who alone escaped 



the massacre of the Beys by leaping his horse 



over the walls of Cairo, did not enter into that 



of his matchless barb.? 



"The bounding steed you pompously bestride 

 Shares with his lord, his pleasure and his pride. 



" Assuredly the best portion of a horse's speed 

 lies in the mind of his rider, and it is by no means 

 certain that if Gil Patrick, who rode Lexington 

 into 7.i9f, had — with his present knowledge of 

 what is within a horse — grasped the rein and 

 pressed the sides of Eclipse, he could not have 

 brought his 7.37 down to 7.26. 



