THE TRIAL OF THE TWO-YEAR-OLD. IST 
which age they would not have them run. Others, again, 
think that two years is the best age. Yet, I think, 
after what has been shown here, that there can be no 
valid objection to trial as yearlings, or to the adoption 
of my principle; which is:—Try early, and discard the 
animals that are found wanting, keeping only those that 
show actual merit, and those that, having breeding, sound- 
ness, and size to recommend them, give promise of im- 
provement with age. 
And so with the trial of the two-year-old: as the half- 
mile is recommended for the yearling, I advocate a 
longer distance for the older horse. If the two-year-old 
that stays the half-mile, as I have said many can do but 
no more, had after or before winning in public at that 
distance been tried three-quarters of a mile, his non-staying 
powers would have been discovered, and much _ uscless 
expenditure of money saved, by not engaging him in a 
host of races beyond that distance, no one of which he would 
have the ghost of a chance of winning. 
Furthermore, if I wished to try a good two-year-old 
early in the spring, I should ask him to beat a first-class 
speedy three-year-old, five furlongs at two stone, and in 
the autumn, three-quarters of a mile at sixteen or eighteen 
pounds; and if the young one won, I should expect, and 
most likely find, I had a good horse, I know Lady 
Elizabeth beat Yulius at ten pounds, and I also remember 
Vulture gave Grey Momus two stone and beat him in 
a canter in the autumn, and the next year he won 
the Two Thousand and other races. One Act, the week 
before Swltan won the Cambridgeshire, could beat him 
a mile at twenty-two pounds, and most likely would have 
done so six furlongs at eighteen pounds: and though 
