178 THE RACE AND ITS RESPONSIBILITIES. 
ground at his fences, that he was not fast enough for a hunter, 
and was sold again in consequence. This Mr. Heathcote 
told me himself. One would have thought of all horses this 
would have been the best to have carried a heavy weight 
through deep ground a long course; but it was just the re- 
verse—a good hunter could beat him, and I have no doubt 
many of Mr. Heathcote’s did, or he would not have parted 
with him. From all that has been said, I think it is a duty 
to look well to the state of the ground and the shape and 
features of the race-course ; and before parting with any horses, 
to give them a chance over different courses and different 
lengths, as well when the ground is wet and sticky, as 
when it is dry and hard. To do so, at least, will be to have 
done all that is requisite to deserve the success that fickle 
Fortune so often denies her votaries. 
Another consideration is the relation of owners and trainers 
to others besides their stable and immediate friends. “The 
duty of owners to the public” is a phrase in every mouth; and 
it will be not irrelevant to this portion of our subject to inquire 
as to what this duty consists in, and contrast the reality with 
the inordinate conception of the responsibility so widely held. 
“T will be master of what is my own,” is a principle that 
the masses, if they had their way, would not permit to be held 
by gentlemen who spend large sums of money frequently more 
for the pleasure of the multitude than for their own. 
For my own part, I believe that the owner of a stud has, 
in common fairness, just as much right to do what he likes 
with each and every one of his racehorses, as he has to deal 
with his hack or his hunter, his flocks or his herds, so long as he 
violates no principle of honesty ; and that if he cannot protect 
himself in any other way against those who forestall him, he 
is justified in defeating their ends by not running. The great 
