BUYING BACK THE MARKET BLOOD.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9841, 15 February 1896, Page 4

BUYING BACK THE MARKET BLOOD.

(London Sporting Times.)

With another Christmas passed from us we shall soon now again turn the corner of a new year. Ere the end ot the first month of 1896 we may expect the arrival of yet anothtr brace of Australian sires. We shall thbn have three ■■•* Muskets " added to our armoury, which it is thought will restore ; our lost prestige and recover us the ground we have lost in stamina since the days of the AUxandra Plate winner of 187.*. To have to send so far, at bo great a risk and expense, is presumptive evidenoe that something is wrong as regards our blood-; stock. No one with unbiassed judgment can indeed resist the palpabla evidence before him that such is the casu. Will this expensive endeavour to stem the tide be success!ul in restoring to us the stout and sterling attributes of the famous sen of Toxophilite 7 In the last raoe ran by Musket as a five-year-old, in the Alexandra Plate at Ascot (1872), ono finds such animals behind him as Albert Victor, Favonius, and Agility, another • fivs-year-oldand two fonr-year-olds. Do we ; ever get such a quartette of old 'uns running \ in a*• three mile " contest nowadays ? we should have to go again still twantv-th.ee years farther back, not forward, to find them. It would then be easy enough, with such a quartette as Van Tromp, The Flying Dutchman, The Hero, and Canezou. Here we have even a still better team of grand'stayers than the subsequent lot, and I dare defy the best. authority in England to-day to mention the. names of any four—l will even suggest Isinglass, Ravenubury, La Fleohe, and Lftdas, oat of which only, the worst, would probably nave got three miles st all-—that would have stood a chance with any of these at three * miles. !

What then, nnder our present system of racing, is the use of sending to the Antipodes for stout blood ? With " thirteen hundred " two-year-olds running daring the past season; with a dozen of onr best three-year-olds hart de combat in their second season; with such "classics" as Sir Visto, Kirkconnel, La Sagesse, and Galeottia; with rubbish such as Cornbnry, Barb_ry ( Llan•thony, Campanajo, Ivor, Ac., taking oar best handicaps; with 1,615 races under a mi-e, and only 270 exceeding that distance; with some of money run for during the season, and nearly the whole of it going to two-year-olds and sprinters, with al". this to fight against, of what use is it to sew< fifteen thousand miles for fresh blood? When resident at Newmarket in 1891, the writer remembers three horses in particular that were quite as good-looking as any of the animal- of the past which are here quoted. They were Oonverneur, Suspender, and Valouris, the first a rogue, the other pair < cripples. These ire the type ot racehorse our present system farters. Outwardly and in! -*

speed, the modern thoroughbred is, perhap» even better than in the past; but otherwlss there is no comparison at all. In soundness either internally or externally, whether ol the respiratory organo or the limbs, in constitution, temper, stamina, general robustness, or of suoh attributes as onoe went to make the English racehorse so superior tc all others, in all this we are now in presont day purlanoo, not in it. Again I aik, then, will the " three musketeerß " ohange all this, and is it not rather to the present system of racing than to any roquired change of j breoding that we owe tbe present necessity • for sanding so far for the description of animal that wo have ourselves so wilfully stamped out.

j We aye just now oonsoling ourselves with j having in the coming soason at least threi * superior Derby colts (with 5,500 brood mares) j and perhaps we have, but it may not be i amiss to remind the too sanguine that vre ' jlast year took as little as _ to 1 abbot I Speedwell and Raconteur! That Orrae, j Gouverneur, Friar's Balsam, and plenty | more were thought similar "good things" 'in thoir rospoctive years; but something [happened, and they weren't. That Sure? I foot, Lo Nord, Heauino, and Riviera w«rs i backed in the December previous against j the field for the Derby of 1890. Thftt I Common was nnver heard of until oloss on the Two Thousand day, and, in fact, that jit's probably a good job for ths B-ngaine ! one that ante-post batting it so. nearly done with. It is nnroly penny wise arid pound foolish to be sending to Australia for fresh sires, While we pull out as many as thirteen hundred two-year-olds in a season to seme ••three" hundred four-year-olds 1 For a 'too* year-old to be allowed to win, or to have the ohauoe of winning, so vast a sura as £16,000, or that such a stake as £10,000 should go to a commoner likn Orbit, appears to be not Only wrong polioy, but simply criminal. Io what way aan this add to the " improvement of tbe breed," or be of "inestimable, value to the ; --■ Turf?" Was it with either of these objects . that Signorina, Semolina, and Riviera— three two-year-oidg—won. between them £33,000 odd, and were forthwith settled? . ; What sorb of sire was Thormanby- after hia hard first season, or how many high-olass ■', foals do we so far owe to Donpvan ?.

It is really an insult to oouimon' sense to argue about either this abuse of our two-year-olds or the want ot encouragement of our four-year-olds. It is palpable to all who care to soe it; but " vested interests," like ■ . the Fairy Godmother in Dibkeus' " Cirouuv ' locution Office," whose cry of " Tape" upset , , everything, will never allow a change, so Tf< must get on the best way wo oan. ' Thai : . future benefit might otherwise be derived.'' from the new blood of the Antipodean > triumvirate is likely enough ; but under suo_- '<•"' heavy drawbs.chs.it is; to be feav«d the 'furl ' will hardly benefit;much by the venture.