130 QUEEN'S PREMIUM SIRES. 



a purpose it no longer subserved. Hence 

 the substitution, on the recommendation of 

 the Royal Commission on Horse Breeding, 

 of Queen's Premiums for Queen's Plates. 

 This constitutes a fresh departure in the 

 State encouragement of horse breeding. The 

 object of the new system is, of course, 

 identical with that of the old; only instead 

 of continuing to encourage third-rate racing, 

 of which there is enough and to spare, 

 it applies itself directly to the stud — that 

 is to say, it gives prizes to horses on their 

 entering the stud instead of during their 

 racing carreer. 



In this way it was considered they would 

 go to a better class of animal than of late 

 years had been the case. It does not, how- 

 ever, necessarily follow that this will be 

 the consequence of the alteration. The 

 premiums are given entirely for " points," 

 neither the actual performances of the can- 

 didates nor the merits of their ancestry 



