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TRAINING A HORSE FOR A SINGLE RACE. Writing of the difficulty attendant on training a horse for a single great race, "Vigilant." of London Sportsman, says: "I believe old Tom Jennings only once got Rayon dOr thoroughly to his liking, and that was on the St. Leger day of his year. His instructions to Jem Goater, who rode the big chestnut, were: You must come right through witli him, for this horse is trained, and if I see you waiting or easing him Ill shoot you. Right, sir. therell be no shooting, "said Goater, and, sure enough. Rayon dOr strung out his field in tremendous style, no St. Leger ever being won more easily. "Some such thoughts as these have always been in my mind when I have contended that Ladas, after winning the Two Thousand Guineas. Newmarket Stakes and Derby, had not a really fair chance against Isinglass, who was specially trained for the Princess of Wales Stakes and the Eclipse Stakes of that year, and was not wanted for any earlier race that season. A lino object lesson in the training of a cup horse was that of which Persimmon was the subject. He was worked throughout the whole spring and early summer with the definite, single idea that he should be at his very best on the Ascot Cup day and what a horse he was when the time came! It is not often, however, that owners are patient enough for that sort of thing, and training horses must be now to a certain extent, a question of compromise, skill being shown in keeping a horse somewhere near the border line of fitness as long an possible. Occasionally, however, we find horses, like bite Eagle, upon which the tactics of compromise are useless. He can bo trained for one race, but it almost passes the wit of man to keep him at concert pitch for another."
