HAS THE THOROUGHBRED IMPROVED? 225 
CHAPTER XXII. 
THE RACEHORSE AS HE WAS AND IS. 
“Has the thoroughbred improved ?—Reasons for affirmative answer; Admiral Rous’s 
opinion—Flyers and stayers of our day enumerated—Horses past and present 
contrasted: Bay Middleton y. Vespasian, and Blue Gown—The work of 
the present day more continuous—Tables of number of horses and distances 
run—Increase in numbers and foreign competition—The press on Alep’s 
defeat by Avowa/—Satisfactory result of this examination—Increased size 
of the racehorse demonstrated—Fallacy of the time-test—Improvement in 
hunters and steeplechasers, 
ONE vexed question often debated, and which it appears is 
as fiercely contested as ever on any and every favourable 
opportunity, relates to the condition of the English racehorse. 
Has he deteriorated in speed, size, or stamina? Is he no 
longer the superior animal he was in the last, or in the earlier 
part of the present, century? On this subject I shall add to 
my own ideas, the views of those, in my opinion, the most 
trustworthy authorities to follow; a plan that may help to 
clear up doubts which must of necessity exist in connection 
with things that happened so many years ago. For in the 
comparison of the merits of the horse in the last century, 
when but very brief and imperfect accounts were kept of 
his doings, with those of the horse in the present day, 
much must be conjectural; yet these accounts if carefully 
studied afford a mass of interesting information, and properly 
collated, give us, if not a just estimate of the merits of both, 
yet an approximation to it, little short of the truth itself 
and sufficient for our purpose. 
Q 
