74 The Course, the Camp, the Chase 



frequently their progeny as well — as hunters, hacks, or 

 mayhap between the shafts of a dogcart. If the history 

 of such is accurately known, it would be a mistake not to 

 breed from them, because of a hard-and-fast rule that they 

 have not shown winning form on a racecourse. Many an 

 animal has been rescued from oblivion by the accidental 

 chance of one of its offspring entering a training stable, 

 where its merit has been discovered. Then, too, there are 

 the numerous cases of well-bred mares, that, from some 

 defect of conformation or for some other good reason, 

 have been debarred from being trained. When visiting 

 stud farms I have frequently found that the mare who is 

 the greatest star of that stud has been untrained from 

 some cause or other, while mares that have been famous 

 winners themselves have only produced very moderate 

 racehorses. Two mares that occur to me are " Suicide," 

 who could not be ridden owing to having a deformed hind 

 leg, but who was the dam of that sterling good horse, 

 " Amphion " ; and " Auchnafree/' who was unable to be 

 worked owing to a club foot, and who produced a very 

 smart horse in " Eobbie Burns." No doubt in this, as in 

 other things, " Medio tutissimus ibis" and the breeder who 

 has judgment — backed up by the essential concomitant of 

 wealth, so that he can afford to follow out his ideas — will 

 not fail to produce excellent racers. 



