TRAINERS OF DERBY AND OTHER HORSES. 



' It strikes me very forcibly, sir, that nearly all 

 our horses are over- trained — in fact, galloped to 

 death ; and as nearly all trainers pursue the same 

 system of training, no discovery of that great fact has 

 yet been made. But some day, when an owner or 

 trainer, of an original way of thinking, has the courage 

 to take Nature for his guide, and not work a horse off 

 its feet before the time fixed for it to run, then the 

 great discovery will be made, and some important race 

 be won with greater ease than any race was ever won 

 before.' 



These words were spoken at Epsom more than twenty 

 years ago by a gentleman who possessed many claims 

 to speak on the subject of race-horse training. He 

 founded his observations by saying that training had 

 become too much a matter of ' use and wont,' and that 

 'head lads,' and jockeys who began business on their own 

 account, simply followed the modes of work to which 

 they had been accustomed in the stables in which they 

 had been bred. Happily, of late years trainers have 

 come upon the scene who have in many respects been 

 better entered to their business than most of their 

 predecessors — men who do not take every horse to be 



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