Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 320 pages of information about Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 320 pages of information about Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science.

1863 The Ranger H. Savile English.
1864 Vermont H. Delamarre French.
1865 Gladiateur Comte F. de Lagrange French.
1866 Ceylon Duke of Beaufort English.
1867 Feryacques A. de Montgomery French.
1868 The Earl Marquis of Hastings English.
1869 Glaneur A. Lupin French.
1870 Sornette Major Fridolin (Ch.  French. 
Lafitte)
1871 (Not run).
1872 Cremorne H. Savile English.
1873 Boiard H. Delamarre French.
1874 Trent W.R.  Marshall English.
1875 Salvator A. Lupin French.
1876 Kisber Baltazzi Hungarian.
1877 St. Christophe Comte F. de Lagrange French.
1878 Thurio Prince Soltikoff Russian.
1879 Nubienne Edmond Blanc French.

It will be seen by this list that the superiority of the English-bred horse over the French is far from being established.  Of sixteen races, the English have gained but five, [Since this article was written the Grand Prix has again been won (June, 1880) by an English horse, Robert the Devil.] while they have been three times second and four times third, and in 1875 their three representatives came in last.  The winner of the Epsom Derby has been beaten several times, as in the case, amongst others, of Blair Athol by Vermont and Doncaster by Boiard.  The winners of the two chief prizes of last year were a French, an English and an Hungarian horse—­Gladiateur, Cremorne and Kisber.  It may be remarked also that the winner of the French Derby, as it is called, which is run at Chantilly a fortnight earlier, is almost never the gainer of the Grand Prix, the only exceptions having been Boiard and Salvator.  This result is no doubt the consequence of the system of training too long in vogue in France, and upheld by Tom Jennings and the Carters, which consists in bringing a horse to the post in the maximum of his condition upon a given day and for a given event.  The animal can never be in better state, and if he does not win the race for which he has been specially prepared, it is because he is not good enough:  he cannot be made to do any better than he has done.  But if it is hard to bring a horse to this culminating point of training, it is still more difficult to keep him there, even for a period of a few days.  Training has been compared to the sides of a triangle:  when one has reached the apex one must perforce begin to descend.  It being, then, impossible that the animal should support for any length of time the extreme tension of his whole organism that perfect training supposes, it but very rarely happens that the horse prepared according to this system—­for the French Derby, for example—­can be maintained in such a condition as to enable him to win the Epsom Derby or the Grand Prix de Paris.  We have heretofore referred to the reaction against this practice of excessive training, and to the efforts of Henry Jennings in the direction of a reform—­efforts which within the last few years have been crowned with great success.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.