376 THE HORSE 



Unless a preparation has been so short that there is no 

 time to be lost, a horse should always have three or four days 

 clear between his last real gallop and the day of the race ; 

 but he needs a sharp gallop of about half a mile, one or two 

 days before the race day, just to keep his wind right. He 

 should then be full of nervous energy on the day he runs, 

 and ready to put his heart into the race. 



When horses have been very fit, and are then indulged 

 with a complete rest, it is possible to have them ready to 

 run in a very short time, for there has been no time to 

 accumulate fat inside. Amongst instances that come into 

 my mind was that of Eose Blush, by Commotion, who was 

 bought by a very able trainer after winning the Trial Stakes 

 at Southampton on July 16th. Being very poor in flesh, 

 and dried up, her new trainer took her shoes off, turned her 

 into a loose box for three weeks, and gave her plenty of 

 grass. He then took her up again, and, after a few gallops, 

 ran her in ten days' time from the recommencement of 

 training at Plymouth, on August 25th, and after running 

 third in the Tradesman's Plate of 1 mile, the same after- 

 noon she won the Handicap Hurdle Kace of 1| miles. The 

 next day she won the Plymouth Plate of 1 mile by a length ; 

 and on the same afternoon another Handicap Hurdle Race, 

 IJ miles, by a head. A fortnight afterwards she won the 

 Borough Member's Handicap of IJ miles at Tiverton, which 

 ended her racing for the season. It was an extraordinarily 

 daring instance of that trainer's pet theory of " getting 

 juice into them." 



I can give another instance out of my own stable. A 

 horse of mine. Portal, won a hurdle race at Droxford on 

 April 25th, and then I put him out of training, riding him 

 instead as a charger on parade. But one day I noticed that he 

 was eligible to run for the Hurdle Kace at Aldershot, then a 

 coveted race, although there were only three weeks in which 

 to get him ready. I therefore at once put him into work, 

 and despite a field of eight which came to the post, seven of 

 which were winners that season, we won the race by three- 

 quarters of a length. I could give other instances, but 

 sufficient has been said to prove that a rest to a horse, when 



