220 THE ENGLISH TURF 



and a third for the Ascot Gold Cup, and his task is simple 

 enough. A good horse is easier to train than a bad one, 

 and it should be no more difficult to train a winner of the 

 Derby than the winner of a Selling Plate. The fact that in 

 times gone by a certain man trained such and such classic 

 winners does not go so very far, for he could not have done 

 it without suitable horses. Had he won the St. Leger with 

 a plater there would be something to crow about. To my 

 thinking these training wonders of the past did no more, 

 though no less, than any capable trainer of to-day would 

 have done with the same opportunity. Let them have full 

 credit for what they did do, but not to the belittlement of 

 their successors now living. Those unacquainted with the 

 life and business of a trainer would be very much en- 

 lightened by a day spent in a large training establishment 

 where seventy horses or more are taken charge of. Such 

 owners as Mr. Merry, Lord Falmouth, and the Duke of 

 Westminster in the past, and Captain Machell, Captain 

 Purefoy, Mr. Gilpin in the present, depend but little upon 

 their trainers for advice as to running their horses. The 

 higher the class of racing affected, the less is the " placing " 

 of a horse a matter for consideration, the entering having 

 perforce been done usually before it can be known whether 

 a colt or filly is likely to be of any use on the racecourse. 

 It is when the trainer has a number of the rank and file of 

 our thoroughbreds to deal with that his knowledge of the 

 intricacies of the game comes into play ; and with a large 

 proportion of what are called prominent owners of the 

 present day much is necessarily left to the trainer. The 

 absentee owner, with half the world between himself and 

 his horses, is no novelty, whilst a considerable proportion, 

 knowing nothing whatever about horseflesh, are incapable 

 of possessing opinions of the least value. Owners of stables 

 of moderate class, with whom it is everything to get their 

 horses into suitable races where they are not likely to 

 meet with strong opposition, find their time fully taken up 

 with the management of about fifteen horses. What, then, 

 must the responsibilities be of trainers who have four or five 

 times that number, or even more, in their stables? The 



