BIG AND LITTLE YEARLINGS CONTRASTED. 73 
honourable and unflinching sportsman, deservedly esteemed) 
and as their horses race as two-year-olds, they must follow 
our plan and break them not only as yearlings, but, I 
imagine, about the same time of the year as we do, if not 
earlier. So much said, a few additional facts occur to me, 
as perhaps of interest to show the proper treatment of the 
yearling in the paddock, as also to establish the fact of the 
precocity of some horses and the length of time others will 
take to reach maturity. 
In the paddock small yearlings generally show to the 
best advantage, for the larger ones will seldom exert them- 
selves. But this is a poor criterion of real merit. Lord 
George Bentinck gave much attention to this subject (as he 
did to most turf matters), and paid dearly for his credulity. 
He used, as some men do now, to let several yearlings loose 
together side by side at the extreme end of the paddock ; 
and the one that was first across it, he generally took for the 
best, and heavily engaged him. oozool, a compact little 
horse, was, from this circumstance, thought to be good, and 
engaged accordingly ; but he turned out moderately, and 
many he could beat in the paddock, in after life could beat 
him, and very easily. Pyrrhus the First, was to look at in 
the paddock, the slowest of the slow, and all that were with 
him then were apparently better; yet not one was worth a 
guinea, whilst he won the Derby. 
These opposite instances show the little reliance to be 
placed on the galloping of yearlings in the paddock, in which, 
it may be said, there is nothing to rouse the indolent ; the 
big ones being, as a rule, content to yield the palm to their 
light-hearted and ambitious little companions. But at 
exercise the real merits may be gauged with some degree 
of accuracy. 
