THE UNWRITTEN RULES OF TRAINING.

NZ Truth, Issue 158, 27 June 1908, Page 2

THE UNWRITTEN RULES OF TRAINING.

"Spreader" writes :— For one man that discovers his vocation m iife and drpps : .peacefully into it, ninety-nine are, b^ the force of circumstances, drafted info grooves that both their natural talent and inclinations render then least fitted : |or. This is so m jnost every phase or "form of life. A lad by accident or design becomes attached to a racing stable and becomes in^bibed "With the fascination- of the came., and, if he be steady and industrious. m: the course of time, becomes a trainer. Now, m the generality of cases he starts training by following a set of hard and fast rules laid down by his mentors i-i his apprenticeship, which, though excellent enough m most cases, are. m reality, not to be judiciously .applied to any two horses alike. Primarily, muscle, and • its development, are the more serious departments of their profession.^ This, of course, can be held 'to^embrace health, stabling, etc, and next only m importance is the necessity :,Qf becoitiing familiar with the hereditary trails and intelligence of the horse tp be ,trained..| ■ . ■"*■''• a . The /saving, weight wont-st op a llQOfi horse, though perhaps more correct m the abstract than the concrete, is not without a solid foundation of truth. Some hdfses would run a decent race fed on the poorest of oats and worked m the most erratic manner: It is not with a horse of this class that the need for care and study m preparing is /required.- A great deal too much fnertrv is expended on the matter of looks. A silky cbat, as often as not., denotes .excessive internal fat, which, m absolutely all cases should be removed to obtain the maximum of ability. , . By the same rule that a horse s work should be decreased as he goes oK his feed, so should the length' of .his gallops he extended m many cases when he exhibits an extra brisk appetite. To ret a good gallop now and again out df a eood horse is, of course, only natural, but to keep the gallop "m him" till his appearance m public is the great stumblingblock to the majority of present-day trainers. .. , , , If a horse at the finish of his work shows signs of heavy blowing increase the weight 'and lengthen the distance slightly next gallop. This, of course, coincident with the fact of the horse having no apparent ailment of any sort. William Day. the greatest of Rnylish trainers, m his. book, says, "West Australian" (who is the ancestor of threequarters of the racehorses m Australasia) looked like a bag of bones, with his hair as rough as a badger on which seemingly a brush had ne^er been laid, when he' won the English Leger. ; It is safe to say that "all" the great-f est racehorses ol all times have at s&fl*e

part of their career shown .peculiarities ' of form that should be a Wans of diverting modern trainers, from ibc beaten' paths followed so assidiously " these days. It woujtl be absurd to argue that the : same preparation is necessary. 'for 1 a sprinter as a lpng-cus'tariee lunr.eV or ' stayer; still history had it that especially m the colonies, the preatcst sprinters held their own with the great (tuns of the turf, and vfee versa.- Carbine broke a half-mile record m the course , of a two-mile race. .The migMy Maluawbn a Newmarket Handicap m the smart time of 1.15J-, carrying 5. 4 over, the six furlongs, a Melbourne Cup, two miles, carrying; 9.9, m 3.31-j, Australian Cup. 2£ miles, m 4.0. f, carrying 9.9, and topped with a Grand National Hurdle race', three miles, carrying 11.7 as a sieaclier. He then went to the stud, and he cot some of the finest stayers m these colonies : his progeny also won some of the English turf prizes. Wakeful, thought by many to be one of; the greatest little roafes that ever look-, ed through a bridle, also won a Newmarket, six furlongs, second Caulfield Maturity Stakes, seven furlongs, won Doncaster, one mile, Oakleigh Plate. 5* furlongs, Sydney Cup. two miles, and carried the ; crushing impost of 10 stone: into second place for the Melbourne Cup. These are only mentioned to show the versatility of our greatest horses. Car-, bine, of course, goes without saying, was : the king of colonial racehorses; he won' over all distances, but his historic essays were over the longer courses. As an exceptional instance of a horse not reproducing his trials m public may. be mentioned Dreamland. He won the Marib^nong 2-yr-old Plate and started at about 10 to 1 the double for the Mel-; b.ouxjhe Cup and. Derby, next year, but failed. He essayed to win twenty odd 1 times after that and missed each time, but finished bis career as a 10-yr-old by putting up a record up to that time m. the Australian Cup. running 2+ miles m 3.582. under a featherweight, beating San Frail and others. ■ - When a horse "has" the pace, and. is, 'fknown' 1 to 'possess it, if. he persists m; transgressing the orthodox routine,- al~ : ways follow m the same method. The man has, or should have, more reasoning, power than the horse, and the hotsfe has just enouah intelligence to- make him an easy subject to the more developed brain: of the man: Feed is a question .that is, of too much importance to tackle at this ; juncture, so will he dealt with later on.^