ANNALS OF THE TURF. 



Respectfully inscribed to the Amateur ', Sportsman, 

 and Breeder of the American Turf Horse. 



Annals of the Turf. " THE transcendent consequence of the 

 horse to man in every possible stage of human existence, has been 

 the invariable theme of writers on the subject from the earliest 

 records of time. Indeed it is impossible to conceive any other, out 

 of the vast variety of animals destined by nature to human use, 

 which can, with the least prospect of success, dispute with the 

 favourite horse the palm of his master's predilection and attachment. 

 It is an attachment of a truly rational nature, and to a most worthy 

 object. The very idea of being supported at ease by an auxiliary 

 and borrowed animal power, and of being safely borne from place 

 to place, at will, with a pleasant and gentle motion, or with the 

 rapidity of lightning, must have impressed the mind of the first dis- 

 coverers of the mighty benefits of the horse, with ineffable delight. 

 Such sentiments and feelings respecting this noble animal have been 

 constantly entertained and handed down to us from the earliest 

 ages. The general beauty, the harmony of proportion, the stateli- 

 ness and delicacy of the superior species of this paragon of brute 

 animals, could not fail of inspiring admiration in the breasts even 

 of savage and untutored men. Time and the improving faculties of 

 man, gradually developed the various uses aud qualifications of the 

 horse. Endowed by nature with a portion of intellect, with a 

 generous pliability of disposition and fortitude of heart, with vast 

 and energetic bodily powers, he was found capable of bearing a sort 

 of social part in all the pleasures and labours of man. He was 

 associated with his master in the pleasures of the journey and the 

 chase ; he shares willingly and with ardour in the dangers of the 

 martial field ; and with a steady prowess partook in the humble 

 labours of cultivating the soil for mutual subsistence. By the most 

 illustrious nations of either ancient or modern times, the horse has 

 ever been esteemed of the highest worth and consequence, and 

 treated with a distinction and attendance befitting his rank as the 

 first of domestic animals, approximating in society and service to 

 human nature. It is among the most savage and debased tribes of 

 men only, that the breed, condition, and comforts of this noble ani- 

 mal have been neglected." 



This quotation from a very splendid English work on the blood 

 horse, is no less just in sentiment than beautiful in language. It 

 is proposed to treat of the value of the blood horse to our common 

 stocks, and of the various uses to which his conformation adapts 

 him. It has at every period been fashionable with a certain class 

 of moralists, who were more rigid than correct, to decry the sports 

 of the turf; and, further, to contend that the breed of horses having 

 received all the improvement of which it is susceptible, from the 

 blood horse, the further propagation of the latter is useless ; they 

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