PREJUDICE OF OWNERS FOR BIG CONDITION. 95 
system have been always condemned: not by thinking men, 
but by those only “who think true what they wish to be 
so”— the fitness to run of a fat horse. As do men look in 
the circumstances of Crib, given at foot, so do horses in the 
eyes of their owners when first they see them fit to run; 
having, be it understood, never set eyes upon them since the 
day when, enveloped in fat, they left their own stables for 
those of the trainer. At this sudden and great change 
employers often express not only surprise but dissatisfaction ; 
forgetting or not knowing how necessary the change is—as 
I hope has been proved by what I have said. From Mr. 
Copperthwaite I may glean an amusing anecdote to the 
point. He tells us that a friend of his did not know his 
own horse after a month’s training, and said to the trainer, 
“Why, sir, this is not the half of him!” and added, “ I had 
better secure the remaining half whilst Ican!” And did so, 
removing the horse there and then. 
It is not often that gentlemen volunteer to instruct the 
trainer in his business ; yet I have been requested to train 
my horses big—requests which I may say virtually amounted 
to positive orders, and as such were faithfully obeyed. “The 
late Mr. Scott made a practice of training his horses big, 
and why could you not do so?” was a remark once made to 
me. “Simply because I know they run better light,” was 
my reply. 
On one of these occasions a trial was made. The horses 
arrived, as many living noblemen and others can testify, 
in the most splendid condition, full of vigour, as round 
as apples, and coats shining like stars. At Ascot an 
shadow of his once great self, yet, from what follows in the narrative (which it is 
not necessary to repeat here), he appears to have never been better, as success 
attended his efforts. 
