THE EPSOM AND ASCOT COURSES, 175 
it is one of the easiest, or one which circumstances often render 
so. In proof of this I may say, that generally the horses only 
canter up the hill, which is a fact shown by their being all 
together at the top, and then they run at a good pace the 
last three-quarters of a mile down hill. “The consequence 
is,” he adds, “that more valuable horses are broken down 
from this cause when training for this race than from many 
of the others put together. Such a horse will never stand a 
Derby preparation. Why? Because he is frequently galloped 
to death and broken down.” Such reasoning to my mind is 
diametrically opposed to common sense. For it appears to 
me that to say a horse is fit to run over one course a given 
distance, and not over the same distance on another, is little 
less than sheer nonsense. It is just as absurd to allege that it 
takes more or less work and requires it differently administered 
for preparation to run over opposite courses of the same length 
as we find them here in England. Horses cannot but be fit, 
as I have elsewhere demonstrated, and when fit to run one 
‘course must be fit to run any other, provided only it be the 
same length. 
But to return to more directly consider how horses are 
diversely affected by running on different courses, I may say 
that probably the two most dissimilar courses in England are 
Ascot and Epsom, over the last three-quarters of a mile. The 
one is all up hill, and the other all down. Conspiracy may 
fairly be said to run at least sixteen pounds better over Epsom, 
than any other course. Of this we have public proof, whilst 
other horses do the same at Ascot. Sir Charles won the 
Royal Hunt Cup there very easily, owing to his preference for 
the course, for he never won before or after, though he often 
tried elsewhere ; and by a strange oversight he never ran 
there again. He left me shortly after the victory because the 
