116 Report upon the Spring Show of Thoroughbred StaUio7is 
ning a prize, the acceptance whereof would involve his absence 
from the district for which he was purchased. " Scot Guard," too, 
may be doing very well where he is, and the same may be true 
of other cross-country celebrities, and indeed of flat racers. This 
statement may give rise to the retort that the condition, requir- 
ing the prize-winners to stand or travel in whatever district the 
drawing of lots should assign to them, has a tendency to check 
entries, and to keep out of sight those sires who have already 
made a name for themselves bv the excellence of their stock, and 
who have a regular, and possibly remunerative connection with 
the surrounding breeders. To a certain extent this is true, and 
the Committee, when they passed the regulations, could not have 
overlooked the probable effect. But, as I understand the object 
of the show, it was not merely to gather together stallions Irom 
all parts, and to subsidise the best of them, but the intention 
seems to have been to bring five sound horses at moderate fees 
within the reach of farmers and others residing in those districts 
embraced by the Society's annual summer show of the same 
year ; and it was by way of making some compensation for 
whatever cost might be incurred through the horse standing 
away from home that the premiums were set at the high sum 
of 200/. If the Committee come to the conclusion that the 
existing conditions limit the good which the shows might 
otherwise do, nothing is easier than to alter them, so as to 
attract the class of horse regarded as the ideal hunter-sire. 
However, I am now concerned with the Newcastle show as it 
was, and not as to what it might have been, had the conditions 
been differently framed. Aow that the exhibition is over is 
the time to ask one's-self the simple question, " Was it a suc- 
cess?" Financially it is to be hoped that it was ; but beyond 
that, were the horses exhibited up to the standard of sires cal- 
culated to get good hunters and useful half-breds of other 
kinds? In the opinion of the writer the majority of them were. 
They were at any rate infinitely superior to the class of mares 
with which most of them may eventually be mated. Allusion 
has already been made to the fact that the liberality of the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England did not result in the 
entry of an "Ormonde" or a "Bard," or of any other horse 
within a long way of being " the horse of the century," but it 
is a moot point, whether an animal of that kind is necessarily 
a better hunter-sire than one whose racing career has been a 
failure. In an earlier part of this report mention was made 
of several sires which used to travel the counties of North- 
umberland and Durham ; but if they and others, whose names 
have come down to us as celebrities, could have been gathered 
together at Newcastle, it is quite possible that critics would 
