60 THE ENGLISH TURF 



Let anyone who doubts this read the list of sires adver- 

 tised in the Calendar, and note which stand at high fees, 

 which at low ones ; which are " full," and to those which 

 "a few nominations are vacant." Those with the five last- 

 mentioned words attached are nearly always either horses 

 whose performances hardly justified their being advertised 

 at all, or horses who, even if they were good winners in 

 the past, scored all their triumphs on short courses. No 

 breeder deliberately sets to work to breed a five-furlong 

 horse. The animal he breeds may be nothing more, either 

 from natural causes or because it has fallen into hands 

 which give it no other chance ; but the fact remains that 

 when its sire and dam were mated, the possessor of the 

 latter was doing his best to breed a Derby winner. This 

 is the most serious indictment I can make against five- 

 furlong racing, viz. that the horses which pass their racing 

 lives in competing for this class of event are scorned by 

 the best breeders when their running days are over. That 

 they are used for stud purposes at all is a pity, but un- 

 fortunately many breeders enthusiasts in the science too 

 are poor men, who must buy their brood mares cheaply, and 

 who cannot afford the high fees charged for the best sires. 



Another strong argument against five-furlong racing is 

 that it allows of roarers winning races. That many really 

 good horses are roarers I am fully aware, and that many 

 of them can win in good company at a mile, and even 

 over a longer course, I know very well ; but one swallow 

 does not make a summer, and because there are one or two 

 good roarers every season, it does not follow that roaring 

 is not harmful to the breed. Why five - furlong racing 

 encourages roarers is easily explained by enunciating the 

 fact that nine roarers out of ten cannot go an inch further 

 at top speed. Some of course cannot travel so far under 

 pressure, but were there no five-furlong races to be won, 

 probably two-thirds of the existing roarers would be turned 

 out of training as soon as their roaring proclivities were 

 found out. As it is they are kept in the string because 

 they can go for five furlongs, and the fillies, if they happen 

 to be well-bred and good-looking, are sent to the stud in 



