AUSTRALASIAN HORSES. 259 



animals, taking them all round, have more thoroughbred 

 blood in them than their English cousins. 



The Antipodes, as far as I can judge, are far more 

 suitable for the production of thoroughbreds with large 

 bone and substance, than is England. Hence we find, in 

 these colonies, a comparatively large number of animals of 

 the weight-carrying hunter and charger type which have 

 little or no stain in their pedigrees. On the other hand, 

 although thoroughbreds in England have a greater tendency 

 to ''run light" than in Australasia, they certainly show more 

 *' quality " than those of any other country. Without wishing 

 in any way to dogmatise, I would venture to say that the 

 Colonies are capable of producing more useful saddle-nags 

 and cavalry troopers than Europe ; but not as high-class 

 *' sprinters." As an exception to their general utility for 

 Army purposes, I think that better field artillery horses, and 

 especially field artillery wheelers, which require a strong 

 admixture of cart blood, can be obtained in England, thar 

 in Australia. As a proof of deterioration in racing '' quality,'^ 

 I may mention that, up to the present, the produce of im- 

 ported sires has, as a rule, been more successful on the 

 Australian turf than that of Colonial-bred sires, of which the 

 best has been Yattendon, whose two most distinguished sons 

 at the stud were Grand Flaneur and Chester, both out of 

 imported mares. The best Australasian sires have been 

 imported horses, such as Panic, Musket, Fisherman and St. 

 Albans. The same rule appears to hold good in America, if 

 we may judge by what the Spirit of the Times says in the 

 following extract: '*The success of imported English sires 

 within the past twenty years, beginning with Leamington, 

 has certainly impressed many breeders with a belief in their 

 superiority. Glenelg, Australian, Bullet, King Ban, The 

 Ill-used, Great Tom, King Ernest, Bonnie Scotland, Rayon 

 d'Or, Prince Charlie, Phaeton, Eclipse, St. Blaise, etc., have 

 well-nigh driven the native stallions into exile. Virgil may 

 be said to have been the only stallion who was native bred 

 on both sides of his pedigree, and who has held his own 



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