16 NOTES ON BREEDING RACEHORSES. 



sequently kept at home at grass. I am deterred by the expres- 

 sion " never been in training " or " never been broken," when 

 applied to a young mare, even more than by an injured leg, 

 which tells its own unvarnished tale of the reason of her non- 

 appearance in public. The wisest plan is to keep aloof from 

 both until they have by their progeny proved their soundness 

 as dams. 



A lo(jk round the select studs of owners who breed their own 

 racehorses in England and France (Lord Falmouth, Duke of 

 Westminster, Mr. Lefevre, etc.) will show that nearly all their 

 brood-mares have themselves been winners or are the dams of 

 winners, with the exception of only now and then a mare of 

 their own breeding, or from their racing-stables, sent to the 

 stud on trial, of whose internal soundness the owner is perfectly 

 satisfied, and who has only in consequence of an accident been 

 prevented frf)m running on the turf. Mares with high-sounding 

 pedigrees, but without any pretensions to individual goodness, 

 form the staple of a good many studs breeding for sale over 

 which a few matrons of sterling worth — bought, if possiljle, for 

 large sums at public sales — serve to throw a kind of halo. 

 Mares without fashionaljle pedigrees or previous excellence, 

 which in England are to be had by the dozen for less money 

 than that for which half-bred ones can be purchased on the 

 Continent, are owned by needy people, who wait for a lucky 

 chance, or by second- and third-rate breeders, who speculate on 

 selling them to the flats from abroad. 



Sir Tatton Sykes, quantitatively one of the most extensive 

 breeders of modern times, sold only his colts, while he allowed 

 the fillies to grow up wild and untried, and kept those he liked 

 best to breed from. The upshot was a stupendous failure, which 

 must have ruined any man less wealthy than the Yorkshire 

 baronet. He had peculiar ideas, and, I think, believed in the 

 soundness of his principle. Had it been any one else, I should 

 have put him down as a very knowing manager ; for in a stud 

 breeding for sale a considerable saving may no doubt be 

 effected by substituting for brood-mares of well-established 

 reputation, that cannot be had without the outlay of large 



