“ I have seen him “round” on his trainer and eject him without much ceremony from his box when in an ill humour. But I have no doubt that after he went out of training, and had liberty, and not too much strapping, he became the mildest mannered horse that ever won a race or cut a rival’s throat. I fear, however, that he is not a success at the stud, although a sure foal-getter. Comedy King, on the other hand, sires innumerable gallopers, from hurdle jumpers up to the winners of the greatest prizes to be gained on the turf to-day. ”

“ Is the entire business, with all its branches and ramifications, with all the employment offered by it to thousands of people, with all the land now in use for breeding, with all those beautiful parks reserved for racing purposes, in and near the great cities, is it all designed simply to furnish an Australian holiday? ”

“ And without hesitation I claim that Stainforth’s “Head of Trafalgar” is one of the finest studies of the horse in existence, and, as an experienced student of sporting pictures, I declare that his “Craven Plate” is the greatest racing picture ever painted.
Recently I stood before his “Poitrel,” that great horse whose achievements almost equalled the mighty Carbine. He stands on a trimmed plot of grass with a wall at the rear, his shapely, ruddy chestnut form in such clear relief that we realise at a glance how this strong fellow won a Melbourne Cup with ten stone on his back. ”

“ To the north-west, between the Flemington and the Footscray Hills, a considerable chip from the edge of the cup has also disappeared, and through the gap thus formed flow the sluggish waters of the Salt Water River.
Here on the Hill there is accommodation for an enormous crowd of racegoers, and from this high eminence, and from the stands which crown it, a magnificent view of the racing can be obtained. It is the choicest portion of the whole ground from which to enjoy the spectacle, and the top of the hill itself is nearly fifty feet above the race track as it passes the judge’s box. ”

“ The stock of Fisherman, through Maribyrnong, of Sir Hercules, through Yattendon, and of Kelpie, through Fireworks, were even yet the mainstay of the breed. But fresh names, both of men and steeds, were, of course, creeping in. Old Mr. James Wilson, with his Dinah and Musidora lot, came, held sway for many years, and is succeeded by his son, young James. The Chirnsides, too, stepped forward, and did an immense deal for the turf when they brought out three shiploads of blue-blooded mares and young ones, straight from the breaking-up sale of old Sir Tatton Sykes’ stud at Sledmere. ”

“ The chief lesson that is to be learnt is: That you can’t make a stayer out of a horse that has not inherited a staying heart, train him as you will. The old ideal that if you wanted a horse to run two miles you had to train him over that distance was absurd. You must, of course, get the animal’s muscles in a fit condition, and that can be done by slow, long work, and by running him at a fast pace from time to time over a mile or so; but you can’t make his heart carry him two miles at the requisite pace if he does not inherit the proper kind of heart, no matter how you train him! ”

“ We have become so intensely democratic in our notions that we do not seem to be able to suffer a king to live, not even in our pastimes. The prize-money has become much more evenly distributed, which, perhaps, is all the better for the prosperity of the turf, and we do not seem to be able to breed racehorses without importing a constant stream of sires from Europe. And for the greater part these importations have been scions of the Eclipse-Blacklock house through St. Simon and his great sire, Galopin. ”

“ In the warm spring days, and in the scorching heat often experienced at the New Year Meeting, members, standing and sitting alongside the rails, the betting public, and the fraternity of bookmakers, have conducted their business for many years past in a leafy and chequered shade, and in an odour of sanctity which almost resembles that of a great cathedral. ”

“ It is not given to many to possess the true prophetic vision, but it is a simple task to foretell that war has not yet ceased upon the earth, and that we have not even begun to make reaping hooks of our spears, or spades and ploughs and harrows of our guns. It is the improvement of our horse, for general utility purposes, and for war, that is really the motive which ought to promote this racing of ours, but which poor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in a fatuous moment, has lately dubbed “the curse of the country.” ”

“ The sales have grown steadily in importance each year, and buyers attend from all parts of Australia and New Zealand to satisfy their wants. The possibility of buying an embryo Breeders’ Plate or Derby winner cheaply is the magnet which lures the bids from the buyers at the ringsides. There is a fascination in buying a yearling which does not enter into the purchase of a horse whose galloping powers have been tested, and nearly every buyer at the sales thinks, until disillusioned, that he has the winner of the next Derby in his newly acquired equine baby. ”

“ And the colonists’ manner of life tended to foster the proclivities which Nature had implanted in their hearts. The wide, open spaces; the long distances between town and town, neighbour and neighbour; the free, healthy, open air, stimulating to body and soul; necessity, and the desire to help oneself—all these factors moulded our Australian character, and forced us not to be satisfied with the things which were good enough for our forefathers, but to develop, improve, and sometimes to strike out on new lines altogether. ”

“ Nothing was too good for them, either for man or beast. Everyone welcomed them, and the old greybeards, in the evenings, beneath the big gum tree, while the boxes were being done out, and the horses meanwhile were held in the shade, would talk horse, and nothing but horse, by the yard. Some might even remember having seen Rous’ Emigrant or Manto, and another might have come from Yorkshire, and had known all about Sledmere and Sir Tatton Sykes. And the racing was more for the fun of the thing then, and the owners betted more like gentlemen between themselves. ”

“ Wakeful, the finest mare over all distances ever seen on the Australian turf, was on the small size, yet she won the Sydney Cup with 9.7 in the saddle.
We may at once admit that there may often be a very considerable difference between the conformation of the stayer and the sprinter, yet the real difference lies hidden from the sight of the judge, for the difference is in the particular kind of heart that the animal has inherited. ”

“ Let us then recognise this fact, that just as a man may transmit his nose, his eyes or his ears to his sons and daughters, just so may a horse transmit his bone, his muscle, his colour and his heart to his sons and daughters. So now we come to the secret: It matters not whether a horse is black or brown or chestnut—the essential thing the animal has to possess in order that he may stay is a staying heart.
Now, the first objection that will be put forward to this proposition is that every now and then a true stayer arises from a non-staying sire—I admit this is true. ”

“ But each mare and foal should be watched as a cat watches a mouse. Neither must be suffered to endure the slightest check for a single day—no, not for one hour. The careful, experienced horse master can tell at a glance as soon as one of his charges is showing the smallest symptom of “going back,” and he must begin feeding instantly. If he has not postponed too long, it is surprising how little it takes in the way of oats and chaff and bran to keep your mares and foals in the best order imaginable. ”

“ And I can scarcely think it possible that every racing man of to-day does not see, in his mind’s eye, the name of each horse of whose pedigree he is thinking, without also visualising its appended number. ”

“ Some stayers have a particular kind of heart which enables them to sprint, and, at the same time, it allows them to begin quickly in a distance race, to get into a good position early, and to keep their places. Poseidon was such a horse. He was a perfect stayer, could sprint like a pure sprinter, and was so clever in a big field that he could take up any position he liked in any race no matter the distance. Mooltan, another horse with a Positano heart, could run a mile (second in the Epsom) , win a Metropolitan, and run second in a Melbourne Cup. ”

“ And it must be confessed with the deepest regret that a great number of the army of blood sires which we have been importing for the last twenty years are not sound, are not stout, are the reverse of masculine, although they do possess some of the greatest running blood in all the earth. My own deliberate opinion is that, for a decade, at least, we should drop this extravagant importation, put our own house in better order, and show the world once more what we can do in the way of producing our own sound, stout, fleet and staying, high-couraged but sensible Australian horse. ”

“ We have become careless. Our young men do not desire the glorious companionship which their fathers enjoyed, that loving friendship between horse and man. They fizz through their stations now in a motor car, or possibly they even fly through the air to the back of the run, and are home for luncheon. Their sires and their grand-sires on these distant excursions camped out for nights, their saddle for a pillow, their horses, in hobbles, not far distant from their side. ”

“ To pick up a good-looking brood mare, in foal or with foal at foot, for nothing, was a temptation impossible to be resisted by many with such a weakness, as they travelled on horseback through the wild, outback places, behind their mobs of cattle and droves of sheep. ”

“ A year or so of station life with his cousin in North Queensland inspired him with such enthusiasm for the outdoor life and our genial climate that a return to London was out of the question, so he decided to come to Sydney, there to indulge a long-cherished ambition to paint Australia’s thoroughbreds for which he had conceived so warm an admiration.
I am the fortunate possessor of Stainforth’s picture of “Artilleryman” finishing in his memorable Melbourne Cup. The horse is shown going at top speed, quite off the ground, with his legs well under him. ”

“ She beat, and habitually beat, all the best performers of her day, and over their own distances, were they five furlongs and a half or three miles, Hymettus, La Carabine—who, however, did once put her down at three miles—Ibex, a mighty sprinter, Bonnie Chiel, Great Scot, Brakpan, Abundance, Air Motor, The Victory, Footbolt, Sojourner, Lord Cardigan, and all the crowd of handicap horses which she so often met at enormous disadvantages in weight. And some of her defeats were scarcely less full of merit than her wins. ”

“ Maltster, on the other hand, was an indifferent stayer, and while he was one of the most successful sires in the whole world, he gave us only one stayer, Alawa. Some of his sons and daughters could just get a mile and a half—Malt King and Maltine were both Metropolitan winners, but they could go no further. Thus it is brought home to us that though a sire may be the father of hundreds of brilliant milers, it is reserved for a few horses to beget stayers of two miles or more. Nothing could show this better than a study of the progeny of Grafton and Linacre. ”

“ One can never forget how, after having won the Derby in smashing style, he came out in the Cup, and with the substantial burden of seven thirteen on his three-year-old back, seven pounds over weight-for-age, he took the lead before passing the judge’s box the first time round, never relinquished his advantage, and finally strode home half a dozen lengths to the good. Some of us, whilst taking a walk round the course on the evening before the great race, were talking “Cup” all the time. ”

“ When one pauses to consider that the average number of runners in a Derby field is about ten, it will be seen what disappointments the yearling lucky dip holds. It is good that racing men, one and all, are more or less always cheerfully optimistic, and the compensation of a yearling purchase turning out well makes up for a lot of disappointments.
Victoria has, after many years of stagnation, taken on a new lease of life as a stud centre, and, with such successful stallions as Comedy King, The Welkin and Woorak, all located south of the Murray, New South Wales will have to look to her laurels. ”

“ If the inexorable test of the “Winning Post” has not compelled us to breed from our best, and if, in the course of the flying centuries, the result has not been a march upwards, then Heaven help us and our methods. But do you think that stamina and soundness have improved along with our size and our speed? ”

“ The History of the Racehorse in Australia is such a short one that you might, with reason, imagine that the entire narrative could be condensed into a very small space when committed to print. But you would be utterly wrong. On the contrary, an historian, with his heart in the business, could reel off a number of fair-sized volumes, and still his work would not be fulfilled to his entire satisfaction. A little ancient history may be useful to us before we commence to study the subject. ”

“ A cab horse can run two miles, but his pace is nothing. A hurdler can run two miles, but the time he takes would leave him a furlong or two behind in a weight-for-age race. Therefore when we say a horse can stay, we imply the possession of a heart that can stand the enormous strain of running two miles, or more, in time that will not much exceed three minutes twenty-six seconds, carrying a good weight. ”