THE ENGLISH THOROUGHBRED HORSE.

Evening Star, Issue 3573, 5 August 1874, Page 3

THE ENGLISH THOROUGHBRED HORSE.

In a letter to tlie ‘Times,’ published ou the 9th February, Admiral Rous thus speaks of the English horse : —“ It is capable of proof that our thoroughbred stock (that is, stock bred for racing) is as good as ever, and must be improving every other breed. The Anglo-Arab is by actual deeds the best in every part of the, world. The charger, the hunter, the carriage-horse, and even the cab-horse, all must and do succumb to their respective vocations when brought into contention with the modern English thoroughbred horse, and not until a breed can be found to go further and faster under a heavier weight will any clap-trap deprive him of the benefit of this proof of his actual superiority. Our stallions and mares are bought up by our foreign neighbors at any cost. In all their racing establishments English trainers, stud grooms, jockeys, even stable lads are universally employed on exactly the same system as our own. We see their most important and successful breeders setting at defiance the rules of their own country and bringing their best produce here to run for our early two-year-old races, instead of holding us so cheap as to give us reciprocity in return for the numerous rich stakes we freely and cheerfully allow

them to cany away. They shut us out from their races altogether. Therefore whence this howl to undo the work of two centuries, in which time we have “transformed the Arab horse of fourteen hands into magnificent animals which, in point of speed, stability, endurance, and power of carrying weight, command the admiration of the civilised world 1 And this miracle has been performed by private enterprise, without the assistance of Government or the public purse.”