THOROUGHBRED HORSES 45 



visiting stud farms mares should be pointed out as most 

 successful dams, which for some reason have either never 

 been trained — as instances taken at random may be men- 

 tioned Auchnafree, the dam of Robbie Burns, who could, 

 not be trained owing to a club-foot, and Suicide, the dam of 

 Amphion, who had a crippled hind-leg — or who have been 

 early sent to the stud, such as Mint Sauce, the dam of the 

 great Minting. Though these instances could be multiplied 

 to a large extent, it is still preferable that the dam should 

 have been in training, for by this means alone can be tested 

 the qualities of docility and gameness, both attributes of a 

 race-horse of the highest value, which the dam may be 

 expected to transmit to her offspring. 



The Bruce Lowe Figure System. 



Before quitting this part of the subject it may be 

 as well to revert to the theory of the Figure System, 

 as devised by the late Mr. Bruce Lowe and extended 

 by his friend, Mr. William Allison, M.A., which is so 

 freely commented on and often derided. We Britishers 

 are a stubborn race, slow to assimilate new ideas, 

 and the great value of Mr. Bruce Lowe's researches were 

 much more quickly grasped by foreign breeders than 

 by our own. "What nonsense," said the latter, "to 

 imagine a mare, who lived perhaps one hundred and 

 fifty years ago, can now influence her descendants ! Of 

 course we all know the importance of breeding back to a 

 good mare of recent date, but the idea of setting any value 

 upon a mare who lived all that time ago ! Well, I am not 

 going to believe it at any rate ! " Pace, Mr. Breeder ! 

 Facts, as the Highlander remarked, " are chiels that winna 

 ding." There have been great mares, of what our "high 

 priest" terms "outside families," in plenty, but they 

 have left no descendants of any renown, though they have 

 been mated again and again with famous sires. It is a 

 complete verification of the survival of the fittest, and it 

 never was sought to force any family to the front, at the 

 expense of others, except through the test of accomplished 



