NATURE OF EXERCISE 153 



better animals, if they possessed more of a " daisy-cutting " 

 style ; for any undue bending of the knees must tend to 

 shorten the stride. Of course the converse of all this, 

 also, holds good; as we saw in 1871, when Colonel 

 Macpherson's g. a. h. Malabar won the Dehra Doon Derby, 

 from a field which contained two or three horses which 

 could have give him, at least, a stone on the flat; his 

 excellence up the hill being due to the fact that he had 

 been trained on it for a couple of years. When he was 

 subsequently taken to run on the level course at Umballa, 

 he was found to be incapable of acting to advantage on 

 it. During the lengthy preparation which Scot Free, the 

 winner of the Two Thousand Guineas in 1884, received 

 for the St. Leger, he was given almost all his gallops on 

 Side Hill or on Long Hill, both of which Newmarket 

 training courses form comparatively steep gradients. I 

 saw him do some of his last gallops before going to 

 Doncaster; and although his muscular development was 

 perfect, I could not help being impressed with the fact 

 that his action was much "higher" than when he won 

 The Guineas, beating Harvester, Superba, and others. He 

 started first favourite for the St. Leger, at 11 to 4, and 

 was never once "in it." I maintain that galloping a 

 horse constantly up hill is not sufficient even for getting 

 his wind in good order for a race on the flat. We know — 

 to take an extreme case — that no amount of practice 

 which a sailor might have in running up and down the 

 rigging of his ship, would enable him to "stay" even 

 150 yards on the cinder path; and that mountaineers, 

 however good their wind might be for facing a steep 

 hillside, are soon "blown," if they have to run fast on 



