310 ANNALS OP THE TURF. 



imported into England from Oriental countries, and has exhibited 

 a degeneracy as to substauce or stamina, in proportion as it has 

 been removed from this elder foreign blood. 



The above stallions were the descendants of Oriental stock, as 

 well as Janus and Fearnought, [who were the grandsons of the 

 Godolphin Arabian.] During the days of those horses and their 

 offspring, Virginia was famed for her fine saddle horses, and their 

 weights on the turf was 144 Ibs. for aged horses : now it is pro- 

 verbial that the blood horse of Virginia rarely produces a fine sad- 

 dle horse, nor have they a single turf horse capable of running four 

 miles in good time with their former weight. All their good races 

 are now made by young horses carrying light weight, say from 90 

 to 103 Ibs. 



The same retrospect of the English stock discloses the same 

 facts : Lawrence remarks, that a " retrospect seems to evince great 

 superiority in the foreign horses of former times, many of the best 

 English racers in these days, being the immediate descendants, on 

 both sides, of Arabs, Barbs, or Turks, or their sires and dams. That 

 union of substance and action, which was to be met with in for 

 mer days, has been of late years still more scarce." 



As evidence of the correctness of Lawrence's opinion, it may 

 be adduced that the established weights on the English turf, in 

 former days were increased to 168 Ibs. and it was during this pe- 

 riod that their horses continued to improve both in substance and 

 speed, and notwithstanding the great weight of 168 Ibs. they had 

 to carry, they ran four miles from 7 minutes 30 seconds to 7 min 

 utes 50 seconds. From the days of Eclipse, the weights were gra- 

 dually reduced, and have been brought down to 119 Ibs. and on no 

 track exceeding 133 Ibs. Yet there is not a racer now in England 

 able to run his distance in as good time as they were in former 

 days with their high weights. 



The present rage for breeding horses to a great height should 

 not be so much attended to as obtaining the requisite substance, 

 and from the above list we see that from 15 to 15 1-2 hands in 

 height, has combined with it that necessary union of substance 

 and action which enabled the horses in former times to run in 

 such fine form and carry such high weights. The most obvious 

 way to insure this desirable substance or stamina in our stock, is 

 to increase the weights of the turf to the old standard, and not to 

 permit colts to start in public until four years old. The great su- 

 periority of the elder English race horses is in part to be attribu- 

 ted to the favorable circumstance of their not having started in 

 public until five or six years old. This delay has the obvious fa- 

 vorable effect of enabling the bulk and substance of their limbs and 

 inferior joints to become strong in proportion to their weight, and 

 their whole tendinous system consolidated and firm. Flying Chil 

 ders, Bay Bolton, Brocklesby, Betty, Bonny Black, Buckhunter, 

 the famous Carlisle gelding, Eclipse, and a great number of others, 

 dii not race in public until five and six years old ; and they were 

 racers of the highest eminence for performance and heavy weight, 

 of any on record in the English annals of the turf. 



