2 
THE MOUTH OF THE TWO-YEAR OLD. 
that we should at least possess the means of ascertaining 
that we are competing upon equal terms; that is, with ani¬ 
mals of the same age : and, although of late years consider¬ 
able attention has been paid to the mouth, as a criterion of 
age, yet I am sure you will allow that it is not in the power of 
the ablest man in or out of our profession, upon examining 
the mouth of a colt running as a two-year old in 1859;, to 
certify whether such animal were foaled either three months 
before or three months after January 1, 1857. Hence the 
necessity, I maintain, of our being in a position to feel 
assured that horses brought here from the United States, or 
elsewhere, are foaled at the same season of the vear as we 
breed our own. Let us know that if we are to have free 
trade in racing, that we race ceteris paribus , and then, I 
believe, that we shall have no reason to be discontented with 
any amount of it. 
So long since as the year 1840,1 ventured, in a letter to Bell’s 
Life to direct the attention of members of the Jockey Club to 
the circumstance, “that the mouth could not at all times be 
considered an unerring criterion of age and, although this 
opinion has since proved too true, “ The Queen of Cyprus,” 
to wit,* it was purposely contorted into my having stated 
that the mouth was ec no criterion of the ageand upon 
the celebrated trial of the “ Running Rein” case, 1 was cited 
by the learned council as being ready to be called to make a 
declaration to the same effect. Fortunatelv for him, I was 
not called as a witness, or he would soon have dis¬ 
covered his mistake; but I had to encounter the absurdity 
of the late Lord George Bentinck’s stating that he believed 
that I wrote the said opinion in 1840 to favour the fraud 
which was attempted five years afterwards ! This did not 
distress me much, for it was too ridiculous to require refuta¬ 
tion. 
In the communication alluded to, I suggested that some 
steps should be taken by the Jockey Club to secure our three 
great national races from fraudulent entries, and I proposed 
that a registrar should be appointed, and authorised to ex¬ 
ercise a control upon circumstances of so much importance. 
Since then, a yearly return has been published in the Book 
Calendar of such foals as breeders voluntarily furnish a list 
of to the publishers ; but my plan was to make eligibility 
for entry to the Derby or Oaks, consequent upon regis- 
* The “ Queen of Cyprus,” when saddled ready to start for the Oaks, in 
1845, was examined and declared by two veterinary surgeons to be four 
years old. She was not allowed to run, but was proved afterwards to be 
but three years old, the proper age. 
