HORSE RACING IN 1824.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1443, 29 December 1886, Page 3

HORSE RACING IN 1824.

Sir Francis Doyle is a great authority on horseflesh, and the undergraduates of 1824 were evidently as devoted to the turf as those of 1886 From the racing at York in 1824 (says Doyle) I derived an impression never to be tfliced, that our present horses have been for mauy years gradually decreasing in point of stamina and endurance. These fancies of mine, I know, lead the worshippers of Admiral Bous to look u3oa ote as a fossilised old fool ; I return the compliment by looking upon them as a -c-t of ractu s tradesmen who only care for our national sports as a trade. To them thesuperiorly of our Eogiish thoroughbreds as one of the elements c£ England's greatness is perfectly indifferent ; to moat of thim the beat horse is the horse th:-.t wins them the most money—they have tin other c"'ter;o;i of merit. In Angu-t, 1824, I saw Lord Durham’s Carnival run two desperate four mile races on two successive days, in hi» second race he met new ant genista including an ex-wimer of the St Leg-r. He then walked over a de: d hoit with Mr Watt's Lupoid, none the worto for his previous exeitiona Even thin, though it did him no barm, this double trial was considered to j ress upon Carnival Somewhat unfairly. lu 1800 such an effort would have been so wholly in uccordaccs with the ordinary routine that the busies L . of humanitarians would not have busied him elf to wag a tongue on the horse’s behalf, while in 1834, if the Roneices will find me an animai who, aft r galloping b ur miles in seven minutes and forty seconds, and running his antagonist to half a head, will he ready to face fresh opponents on the next dsy after, over t">e same distance at the same speed, I witImitate Chatle- Greville’s example, and offer np a silver horseshoe at the shrine of the handicapping Admiral’s patron saint, if he have a patron saint.