clean and keep clean than horses of dark colours. These 

 are trifling objections in themselves, but, in the absence 

 of special reason for choosing a grey, they suffice to ensure 

 preference for bay or brown ; hence the disinclination to 

 put to the stud a grey, which may bestow his colour on 

 the foal of his begetting. 



Chestnut Thoroughbreds 



One of the most interesting points in connection with 

 the subject of colour in our Thoroughbreds is the certainty 

 with which the chestnut has gradually crept and asserted 

 itself, to the exclusion of the grey. In the first 

 volumes of the General Stud Book (originated in 1791 by 

 Mr. Weatherby and published in 180S) greys and bays 

 were almost universal, the chestnut horse being com- 

 paratively rare. Those there are, with very few exceptions, 

 are sons and daughters of Eclipse. 



In the list of imported sires, classified according to 

 colour, on page 6, the horses described as chestnuts are 

 eight in number; no doubt there were ma.u\ more 

 chestnuts among the horses whose colour has not been 

 recorded ; but we need not seek reason for the gradual 



* Eclipse was foaled in the year iyf>4 , won his first race, at Epsom, in 

 1769, and continued his unbeaten career as a race-horse until 1771, when 

 he was withdrawn from the Turf. During the two years of his active 

 career he won eleven Ko\ al Plates, one more than the number won by 

 any other horse, and in ten of these he carried twelve stone. His finest 

 performance was under the light weight — for those days— of S st. 7 lbs., 

 with which he, on 23rd August, 1770, won the Subscription Purse at 

 Guildford. He went away with the lead, and at the two-mile post was 

 more than a distance (240 yards) ahead of his competitors, Tortoise and 

 Bellario. In 1771 Echpse went to the stud and stood for service at Clay 

 Hills, Epsom. Mr. Whyte (Histoiy of the Bninli Turf; ^ vols. ; 1S40) 

 gives a table of the successes gained by his progeny, from which we find 

 that during the twenty-three years 1774-1796 his produce included 344 

 winners of ;^I58,047 12s., with other races in which the prize did not take 

 the form of cash. 



