126 QUEEN'S PREMIUM SIRES. 



presently to be farmed by a very few 

 animals. The celebrated Fisherman was a 

 noted performer at the game. Walking, as 

 the custom then was, from meeting to 

 meeting, and being about the stoutest horse 

 of his day, he fairly swept the board, 

 winning in five years one hundred and 

 twenty races, including the Queen's Plate 

 at almost every provincial meeting in the 

 kingdom, from York to Plymouth and Salis- 

 bury to Carlisle. 



With the introduction, however, of the 

 classical races and valuable handicap stakes, 

 the esteem in which the Eoyal Plates were 

 held gradually declined. The owners of 

 the highest class horses kept them for more 

 important stakes, and only inferior animals 

 were entered. Of these, it was generally 

 known by collateral running which alone 

 had a chance, so only two or three came 

 to the post, and the race as often as not 

 resolved itself into a walk over, until at 



