92 PREPARATION. 
you please every one before the race; and if from superiority 
you win, the victory is attributed to condition, which is highly 
praised though in reality non-existent. But if you are beaten 
for lack of condition, the horse will not unlikely pass to 
another, who, training him regardless of popular preju- 
dice, will make a marked improvement in the animal, and 
you not only lose your horse and your employer, but above 
both, and what is most dear to you, your reputation. On the 
other hand, if you train your horse and suffer defeat, pleasing 
no one but the owner, some wiseacre buys him with the inten- 
tion of making him better. We makes him look better; but 
when it comes to racing it is decisively shown there is no 
improvement ; that in fact he runs worse—a result that helps 
to make your reputation as a judicious and fearless trainer. 
I ask, would any sane man run his horse light, when he 
by any known process could be made to run as well big? 
Most certainly he would not be so silly. Some may and 
do, in spite of public opinion, run their horses light for the 
best of all possible reasons—they know they run so best. 
There are others that knowingly do the reverse. The great 
“Wizard of the North,” as he was facetiously called by 
“Argus” and other sporting chroniclers of the day, knew 
horses could not run when fat. Yet he tickled the popular 
taste; in short, hoodwinked the public, and made it believe 
horses run best in that condition, although nothing could be 
more fallacious than the conclusion thus arrived at. In reality 
the horses he used to run big, were those that were bad, or 
were supposed to be so. His good horses he took care to 
run light as other experienced trainers did. Of two-year- 
olds, the lightest I probably ever saw run was Dervish at 
Epsom, and of three-year-olds West Australian at Doncas- 
ter; and yet, in spite of their ragged appearance, they both 
