RACING, OR TURF HOR8ES. 21 :j 



due to the Godolphin, in addition to the extra care and attention which 

 the horse has received during the same time. Nevertheless, all the care 

 and forcing in the world will not increase the size of some breeds ; and 

 unless there was this capability of being forced, no amount of attention 

 would have brought the horse to the present average, which may be 

 placed at about 15 hands 3 inches. 



In relation to the comparisons of speed between English and American 

 race horses, the Spirit of the Times^ New Yord, sums up the matter, 

 and gives a list of the most renowned racers of England and America, 

 which we append : 



It will appear, on a critical examination of the subject, that there is 

 not much difference in the powers of the best race-horses for more than 

 a century ; a period during which they have been brought, upon both 

 sides of the Atlantic, to the present high state of perfection. Within the 

 last two years have been exhibited faster running in England, by Wewt 

 Australian and Kingston, and in this country, by Lexington and Lecomte, 

 than was ever before known. The two last have run four miles, and 

 four-mile heats, faster, in either case, than has been performed in Eng. 

 land. ** Stoneheuge," who has been well endorsed in England, has showi.. 

 "the absurd fiction" of *'a mile within a minute;" and that there n 

 ' ' not the slightest reliance to be placed upon the many loose assertion? " 

 — such as the reported accounts of Childers ; and that he and Eclipse 

 were a distance better than any other horses that have appeared, or that 

 they *' could beat any other a half-mile in four miles!" On the same 

 authority, it appears that, in the fastest Derby, St. Leger, and Ascut cup 

 races, as won by Surplice, the Flying Dutchman, Sir Tatton Sykes, Don 

 John, and West Australian, the distance varying from one mile and a 

 half to two miles and a half, that the fastest rate, with English weights, 

 has been a little over one minute and forty seconds per mile. We have 

 no authentic report that the mile has been run in England under one 

 minute and forty-two seconds, the time of Henry Perritt at New Orleans. 

 Nominally of the same age, three years old, and with the same weight, 

 86 lbs.. Inheritor, at Liverpool, ran two miles in 3.25 ; which is at the 

 rate per mile of 1-42 1-2. " Stonehenge," referring to what he con- 

 siders the best race ever run in England, states that West Australian, 

 four years old, carrying the St. Leger weight, 8 st. 6 lbs. — 118 pounds — 

 •'defeated Eangston by a head only," the latter five years old, carrying 

 9 St. — 126 pounds — running two and a half miles in 4,27, '<or as nearly 

 as possible, 13 1-2 seconds per furlong." "This performance, the best 

 of modern days, considering the weight, the age, and the distance, will 

 compare very favorably with the often quoted exploit of Childers, in 

 1721, at Newmarket, when six years old, carrying 9 st. 2 lbs.--*.28 lbs; 



