174 



5. Four- YEAR OLDS.— 



All classic races, such as Two Thousand, One Thousand, Derby, 

 Oaks, and St. Leger, to be for four-year-olds only, same date and 

 distances to be fixed as at present, but the value of the stakes 

 should be at least double what thej' now are. 



6. FlYE-YEAR-OLDS, SiX YEAR-OLDS, AND AGED.— 



Races for all distances up to four miles, and for the most valuable 

 stakes which the Jockey Club and all other race executives can 

 afford to give. 



7. Stakes.— 



For two-year-olds none higher than £300. 



For three-year-olds none higher than £500. 



For four-year-olds and upwards as valuable as they can be made. 



To alter the date for age to April 1 would be a decided change for the 

 better to breeders generally, especially those with limited incomes. 

 Foals would be dropped in genial weather when milk is plentiful, 

 instead of in the depth of winter when it is scarce. The date for age 

 formerly w^as May 1. 



The adoption of rules in accord with the foregoing would manifestly 

 give our thoroughbreds a better chance of growing into useful horses and 

 racing up to a longer period than does the present code of the Jockey Club. 

 Our youngsters could not be put into anything like hard work till they 

 were well over two years old, or carry heavy weight till the back-end 

 of their three-year-old year, while they would be brought into their four- 

 year-old year with gradual and systematic increase of light work, and 

 until they had attained that age no very valuable stake would exist to 

 excite the greed of their owners. 



I consider it a shame to put 8st., not to speak of 9st 71bs., on two-year- 

 olds, or to ask a three-year-old to ra'^e for a mile and three-quarters. 



If rules like mine, particularly with regard to four-year-olds, were to 

 be adopted, what a riot would be created all over England ! Fancy 

 changing the Guineas, Derby, Oaks, and Leger from three-year-olds to 

 four-year-olds ! Well, my conservative friends, and all vho look for 

 early returns from your two-year-olds, much as you may be horrified, the 

 idea is good and sound in the real interest of racing. Deny it if you can 1 

 Deny also that to encourage four, five, and aged racing by giving the 

 largest stakes for those ages, w^ill tend to make our racehorse a vastly 

 more useful animal than he is at present ! 



We had for the Derby of 1892 ' 265 entries, with one exception the 

 largest on record. How many of them will ever start for any race ? 

 How many will start for the Derby itself, and how many of these will, 

 perhaps, ever start again ? Then of the original entry whose carcases 

 have escaped despatch to the nearest kennels and have attained their 

 four-year-old year, how many will be seen in a racing stable or anywhere 

 else, except as very light-weight hunters, or between the shafts of a 

 hansom ? Change the present system for one which it is acknowledged 

 would be beneficial to our racehorse, something like what I have formu- 



* This article was written by me early in 1891. The reader is referred to 

 the Eacing Calendar for the record of the Derby of 1892, and what ha& 

 become of the great entry it received.— The Author. 



