PREFACE. 
IN bringing before the public a work that has for its 
specific subject the training of the racehorse, and incident- 
ally offers some observations on turf matters generally, the 
author feels the need of its indulgence. 
The experience gathered as the result of thirty years un- 
wearied labour in the management of a large racing-stud, is, 
he feels, the best apology he can put forward for the attempt 
to write comprehensively on matters never before so treated 
by atrainer. In order to inform, to please, and to encourage 
the student, a thorough knowledge of the subject must be 
supplemented by facts clearly stated, and by arguments 
based on experiences that have stood the test of time. It 
is perhaps too common to represent technical or professional 
matters as full of mystery to the unlearned. Such a pre- 
tence would be out of place here. Our subject is one easy 
of comprehension, and it is the intention and desire of the 
writer to apply to it the simple treatment of which it is 
susceptible ; to set forth practical knowledge and important 
and ascertained truths deduced from daily observation in a 
manner intelligible to the ordinary reader. 
