A CHAT ON TRAINING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2650, 28 December 1904, Page 50

A CHAT ON TRAINING.

i Far be in from me to attempt to teach ; trainers -their business, but lookers-on proI verbially see most of the game, and it has certainly occurred to me (says the Special Commissioner of the London Sportsman) that in recent years there seems to have been greater difficulty than there, iised to b© in .getting horses fit to run in -the spring and early summer. Th American trainers, without exception, failed utterly in this respect, though Hoggins used to get annoyed 1 if anyone said so. But there are many others whoso horses neVer begin to bloom until the season is half over. Sometimes it is ascribed to the heavy going on the downs, and we have Tcnown years when Kingsclere three 7 yeaT-olds ♦"have had to be -kept until Ascot, or even later, as, for instance, ths much-fancied Regret; but at Newmarket there ;an be- no such excuse on ' the score of heavy jjoing, and yet William , Rufus last year and Henry the First did not come to anything like their true form until I the autumn. I have never had any doubt that the Americans got wrong by persist- . ing in keeping their horses unclothed in their stables. "What suits one climate does not suit another, and the sun in America is myrch more potent than it is here, while clothing is really essential in average weather if a horse is ever to be worked down to his bearings. It is far from certain that in the case of all gross horses the old system of sweating gallops is not the besty if an animal is wanted for early engagements. Many such horses do not sweat freely at ordinary exercise, and, according to the old style, they would be sent a three-mil© sweating gallop three times a fortnight, with double clothing on, the pace being slow for two miles and then increased gradually to the finish. On pulling up the horse would have additional rugs put on him in the rubbing house, and there be allowed to breakout for ten minutes or so. Tien with the sweat pouring off him he would be scraped and rubbed dry, having received inestimable benefit, fresh clothing put on him, and so led home, to be again dressed over and perhaps have some nitre in his water, and linseed mash that night, for the sweating is otherwise apt to interfere with digestion. Now these ideas — which are not my • own, but old-school ones — seem to be based on very sound commonsense, where horses have to be trained in a more or less sunless climate. Certainly John Scott trained in this fashion, and I can imagine that the revolt -against the system was due to unintelligent trainers sweating indiscriminately both delicate and gross horses, iust as at one time blood-letting was considered the sovereign remedy for every ill to which human flesh is heir. I am aware, of course, that so-called sweating gallops are occasion^ ally done now ; but the system as a system has passed into disuetude: and I venture j to suggest «-nat for some horses, especially ! in a cold spring, it may still be the best system after «11. There are -other wav= of gettiug" off weight, such as the Turkish hnth, and, better still, the radiant heat bath. | These for horses with doubtful legs are of i course excellent; but any jockey knows that j he preserres his strength far better when ! he reduces himself by walking than if he ! does it by Turkish baths and other means. Thus it is that with all submission I suggest ! to trainers i.ho advisability of i everting to I the old scheme for some of ou? modern gioss horses, who are becoming very numerous since Fioriael and Persimmon to the -stud. I shall uct. I hope, be misunderstood — it is merely an idea which has struck me as a commonsense one, — but when 1 I remember the tremendous amount of work Persimmon did to fit him for the A«cot Cup and the even greater difficulty which is involved in training some of his g?o c s?r '-topk, I do think the wisdom of our ances- | to's might perhaps be -utilised in such cn«es with good rpsnlfs. Ard Patrick was another i horse who defied the -efforts of modern trainprs to get him ready in time for the Two Thousand Guineas, in which ho finished only third to Sceptre, Irs form being as wrong on that occasion as Scept-re's was for the Derby. In fact, they were as nearly as makes no difference the snrae animal : but Ard Patrick was never really fit to run ancJ show his very bpst form exee-^- on the Eclipse Stakes day. This was partly due to his strain ing a tendon at Ascot, but in th© pprinsr of his three-year-old carp-er his too. too sold flesh «utvplv would not melt. I have thrown out the above ideas, not in any wav a= arrosptinc to myself the slightest authority, but because J think they OX9 possibly worth consideiation.