HOW TO MAKE A RACEHORSE.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 39

HOW TO MAKE A RACEHORSE.

(Ky "Borderer," in Baily's Magazine.)

Perhaps you will think this tibia presumptuous, and probab'y ycu will have grounds for the thought. Neverthe'ess, as nothing in these days is gained by wrapping up either knowledge or money in a stocking, and as after all *n opinion has no more worth than the weight it will carry, I shall break no bones in the attempt "to throw practical light on my iutaresting subject. Let it be quite understood at the outset that I am not gciug to offer any' opinion on breeding racehorses. It matters no 6 whether you adopt the new figure system, or any other choice or fashionable system ; let us take it for granted that all racehorses are well enough bred. You may, provided you care to sink sufficient capital in your venture, breed them by the ecore or in fift-iee — the more the merrier — but, alas ! will you in the same ratio make racehorses of them when bred ? I trow not. Now,' when we come to consider what a multitude of public and private studs pervade tho country at the present day, and the immense capital that is embarked in them, we begin to measure the importance of our subject, and to throw apologies to tbe winds. The question that first arises is, Why ere the numbers of racehorses which are made so out of proportion to the numbar bred ?

Statistics are dry things, but they supply stubborn facts, and I am indebted to some elaborate figures carefully worked out that appeared in tbe Field of February 15, 1896, from the pen of " C. B. P." for an illustration of the fact that high prices for yearlings of choice breeding do not have the effect of making them racehorses. Out of theee figures I will only take the years 1889 and 1890, when the flood of prices may be taken at its height, and the results are clearly proved. In 1889, 41 yearlings sold for 73,850g«, and won in stakes £34,126 during their racing careers.

• In 1890, 58 yearlings fetched 99,730g5, and won £64,477 in stakes. Whilst if yon enlarge this table from 1883 to 1894, you will find a heavy loss each year, varying from £13,000' t0 £43,000. Ib will only amplify my argument if I add that the plums during these 10 years can be counted on one's fingeri — such as La Fleche, Memoir, Mimi, Enterprise, Bona Vista, Enthusiast, Merry Hampton, Childwick, and Wolf's Crag— and yet during these years the sum of 529,590gs was expended in baying at auction yearliDgs for tOOOgs and upwards ap : ece, of which only £215,837 was won back instakeg. Much less than half, mark you, and yet here we have the result of public enterprise in the ablest hands, forgetting altogether the failures of the smaller men, and the heartburnings of the many un-. appreciated ones, who, could they only hi ve leaped into the winning list, would immediately have taken their place among the more fortunate 1000-guinea men. Nevertheless, up coma the hapless buyers year after year to immolate themselves at the same shrine of " all fat and no muscle," instead of being,' as it should be, '*all heart and no peel," as Sir Tatton Sykea began his stud sales with so notably in 1871. And the ' animal proved worthy of his significant name, although we know him now only by his name of Doncaster, ancLhis cost, like Hermit's, was lOOOgs. Did not Baron Hirsch give 31,350gs for 20 yearlings ? Sir Blundell Maple 28,550gs for 13 yearlings ? and Colonel North from 1889 to 1891 £26,200 for 13 yearlings ? Out of these lots each picked only one plum. The Baron's, by far the sweetest, wai La Fleche, Colonel North's was Simonian, and Sir Blundell Maple's Childwick.

I« it not natural that we should ask ourselves will this last ? and what are the reasons for it ? r do not hesitate to say that the primary cause is that the thing is overdone. It is not only that the animals are overfed and unnaturally reared, it is that the ground on which they are reared is over-horsed, and tainted — done to death, in fact, with horses— and although clever grooms and unlimited cara will produce to the eye an animal perfect in type and faultless in looks and breeding, the true makingi-of a racehorse are wanting, and the vast majority of these exquisite beauties, or co»t!y plaything!, go to swell the failures when the test of stamina and loundneif comet to bo tried, and without them % racehorse is no

racehorse ab all— indeed, little more valqiibl* than a cab horse. How often I have inquired! from its breeder how stich and, such a yearling, which I had noticed as promised, had turned out, and the reply has bean, "Ah, he or she was well tried, and heavily engaged, bat i» turned out unlucky, and could not be trained.* Thus probably, if it was a filly, it has gone to swell the hecatomb of weak and unsound mares which fill our stud book, and do little good towards the making of racehorses. Casting one's eye carefully over the list of yearlings ■old in 1893 at the July sales at Newmarket and also at Doncaster, one cannot but be appalled at the small percentage that have since paid for their corn bills on a racecourse.

There can be but one solution to this grave failure : not only are the majority of these animals too artificially reared, but they are also too thick on ground already over-horsed and tainted.

We all know what a dote eater of grass a horse is. He will fairly starve . out even a sheep, if left long enough with him in ono pasture. He will soon destroy all the good grasses that his pasture may produce, and it is no uae whatever to put- manures on horse pastures, nnless you give them rest for a season from the bite or dung of horces. I could give instances, of no mean kind that .have come under my personal observation, were it not invidious to do so, where horse paddocks have become kmentably unfit for anything from this cau«-e.

Horses probably more than any other animals require plenty of room and to spare. In their wild state they roam over the broadest prairies, and choose for themselves fresh paaturei day by day. To make racehorses you do not want the sleek, well-kept fatling of the show yard ; you want him with all the dash which the strongest nature of his breeding can bes'ow upon him. He should have the fat of the land of his own choosing, and should hestir himself to get it. There certainly is much in the choice of soils, but I yenture to think that there is more in his having almost entirely new ground to feed and exercise upon. What a multitude of instances can be given of new ground producing the best racehorses. Take Hermit to begin with. He was one of, the first yearlings bred at Middle Pa«k, and so was Doncanter at Sled mere, uud'er the present Sir Tatton's regime. The' Duke of Portland began by breeding .Ayrshire, Donovan, MelniiioD, and other good horses, but he hat steadily deteriorated in his animals since then, although no one can ray that his mares are not all thai; money can purchase or science breed. Tha same c&n be said of Mr Chaplin, at Blankney. He began grandly, bub alaa ! how few winners enrae from (here now. We all know bow Hampton Court, with the exception of Sainfoin and La Fleohe (and every rule has its exception), has worked itself out to nothing. Poor little weak rats of yearlings they came to be, and it was a good day that ended its career, as it only caused disappointment to buyers. The fate of. Yard ley seems also sealed, to judge by the prices now realised, and there are more than 100 brood mares on the ground ! lam told that the secret of Lord Falmonth's success in breeding was that his youngsters were allowed the free run of Mereworth P*rk, and that they rook full advantage of It. The Duke of Westminster, when he bought Dohciuter, broke new ground and bred Bend Or ; now he has goue back to the old paddocks with their bleak walls and Hinted ground. I do nob expect that even his beautiful and priceless mares will make racehorses for him

I could go on multiplying instances that are un answerable. Mr A. Hook bought Wisdom for 50gs, and some cheap mares at an average of about £25 apiece. He tried new ground at Hinningtou, in Shropshire, with large 20-acre pastures, and bred nothing but racehorses. He then .went to fresh ground in Yorkshire, afc Bickerton, which had known no horse sare the Brxmbam foxhunters on it for years, and his suoop.es stuck to him. How long will this lait ?

It would not ha difficult to repeat instances almost ad infinHum to prove my argument. Speaking peraoua.lly, the first animal I evor bred, on ground that had not had a horse on it for 50 years, I sold for £50, and he turned out the bpst I ever bred, and was afterwards sold for £4000. He led the Sfc. Leger winner of his year iv all his work, und could win in good company over the last mile of the Derby course, or carry 12.7 to victory over two miles at Sandown. He was lord of all he surveyed as a colt, and he never forgot it.

Three or four more instance? and I have done. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales gave up buying yearlings, which never won him a race, and started breeding at Sandrihgham. Almost the first horses he bad were Florizel II and Persimmon, and this I maintain is almost wholly owing to the stud farm at Sandringham being virgin soil as far ai horseflesh is concerned. Mr M'Calmont, again, began breeding near Newmarket, on new ground, and immediately Ihere sprung up an Isinglass to confound all his compeers. Then last, butnotleast, springs up Galtee More, a- mountain in himself, bred and nurtured on the finest and widest of Irish. pastures at Knockany — on land I am assured valued in Limerick at £6 an acre forfattening oxen — and what more could be wanted to make; a Derby winner ? ■ • It was only the other day that I heard a practical trainer say, as several yearlings were fairly stretching themselves out in a good pasture, " Ab, if they would only let them do a bit more of that before they come to as, we should not have so many buckshins to complain of when they come to be trained." I cannot mike out that more than four publicly bred and purchased horses have won the Derby within the last 50 years, and these were Hermit, Doncaster, Merry Hampton, and Sainfoin.

Turning again to Irelaiad, we cannot wonder that it has sent ns such a succession of good horses, or, at all events, horses good enough to beat oars, when we know that there are tens of thousands of acres in tbe counties of Limerick, Tipperary, Cork, and Kilkenny, of the finest horse land, very sparsely horsed — such a temptation this to imitate Mr Gubbins, and have some first-rate mares depastured there. It would then, I bslieve, answer to send over there a few of onr high-class stallions, so that foaling mares may be saved the expense and dangers of a eea voja^ge. It is as essential that in-foal mares should have the advantage of the best and freshest land as that their foals and yearlings should have it. Irishmen, too, will loon learn what it is to feed them with the best of oats and hay. The pastures will supply tha bone, the feeding the condition, and the atmosphere the constitution. No doubt Ireland will get overdone after a time, should my dream of the coming next few. years be true, but anyhow overdone England will have bad a reat, and the clever and excitable Faddy will have had his tarn.

Cannot we also bring the example of new countries, such at Australia and New Zealand, to exemplify our argument P What has shown more the success' of our exported blood there— the stamina and bone- of new grazing ground, and plenty of it ? Pages might be written to amplify thi», bat I despise the overloading oE horse or subject. The case stands proved to »oy impartial mind. Is not every wild anint*!

superior to a tame one in stamina P And mult not this also be true of horses P

I hope the public breeders will not think me unkind if, to illustrate my theme, I state that, although they have immensely increased in numbers of late years, they have had much tbe worst of . it as regards breeding winners of classic races as compared with the private breeders ; and this must be greatly accounted for by their usiug horse -worn pastures so largely, and also to their being overstocked. It is high time that they set themselves seriously to work to obviate this deftcfc, which buyers are beginnieg to take serious note of. Even the private breeders, who have d asked into large studs, and been somewhat regardless of the riae of their paddocks and the change of ■ ground, are wondering why their finely grown and bred yearlings make euch a poor show on the racecourse from what they have expfobed of them, and that hardly a stayer beyoad five furlongs can be discovered amongst them. If they think that this article is of any worth, I ■ trust that .they will harden their heart*, and try a change of tactics. It must strike them, as it does me, that there must be something wrong in the state of Denmark when a horee reared in France, carrying a top weight for his age, c*n beat everything over two miles ia the Ascot Stakes, and that moderately-bred American horses, according to our idea?, can keep on week after week winning races round the country. To make a racehorse is a study well . worth enormous attention, seeing what a value is now placed on a first-rater. . If instead of 'trying to breed 10 racehorses in a year people would be content to breed five on the priuciple I have ventured to lay down, they will make ■more racehorses than they now do, and at a ■ greater profit. It will not be many years hence -before the market will beopsned in this country "for colonial and American yearlings, aud a severe competition will set in which will make it not so easy for us to hold our own. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, and in this evermemorable year of grace many new and grand departures are likely to be made. Why should not this be one of them P

The horse is by nature glorious in his might. We are told in tbe Bible that " he f m-lleth tbe battle from afar." Ib it not so with the true racthorse ? You see him step on to the racecourte with a proud gait. His calm, bold eye survey b the scene in which he is fully conscious of the part he is about to take — the freedom of bis youth' is not lost upon him now. He kuows man as his master, but fears him not. He is cont cious of the test to which his strength and soundness is about to be put, and when measured with his rivals his motto is to "do or di«." This has been proved over and over again in the battle field, tbe hunting field, and on the racecourse ; how glorious it should be fchorefore for v«, as tbe Britons of to-day, to be as ambitious as ever to make racehorses as well as breed them.