INTRODUCTION ix 



the thoroughbred is the object in view there should be no 

 hesitation in entering light-heartedly upon the domain of 

 polemics. The breeding, training, and racing of thorough- 

 breds are matters of really national importance, so numerous 

 and weighty are the interests involved, though they may not 

 become at once apparent through mere visits to the race- 

 course as a spectator. In the production of the best possible 

 horse some of the cleverest minds of the world are constantly 

 engaged, and even Governments deem the matter one 

 worthy of serious official solicitude. 



As will be seen, the author has much to say upon questions 

 of breeding, as also upon what are considered to be serious 

 faults in our racing scheme, the tendency of which is to 

 foster the wrong kind of horse. These are among the most- 

 discussed Turf questions of the day, as they have been in the 

 past and will remain in the future. They will appeal to 

 everyone, the uninitiated as well as the initiated, and, for the 

 benefit of all but the very few ardent students of breeding 

 lore who have delved into the obscure records of the past, 

 the strains of blood from which the great horses of the 

 generation, as of previous generations, are descended, and 

 generations to come will be, are traced from the very be- 

 ginning. To those who can have but a vague notion of how 

 the breed of English thoroughbred, which, in its turn, has 

 founded the successful strains of the continents of Europe 

 and America, not forgetting Australia, was derived, it cannot 

 be otherwise than interesting to trace how the magnificent, 

 far-striding, sixteen-hand animal of the day has been evolved 

 out of the original stock of less than a dozen Eastern 

 stallions, who were little more than mere ponies, and the 

 native mares such as then existed, which were the outcome 

 of more remote crossings of Arabians with the earlier British 

 horse, whose history it is impossible to trace. This is 

 evolution indeed, and it forms a fitting testimonial to the 



