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EHORT SPRINTS FOR TWO-YEAR-OLDS. ;■,.■ ■abject of oar Carlonc races lia civen rise to milch argument, which i almost alwaya based m incurrecl "i lasufficient premises, and people who talk or write htMat such races arc usually trader the delusion thai mi wiser predecessors .:i the turf would ii-vit have tolerated scarries asm so short a dlbtance. The laudator temporia act! is ever with us end it i always his role t.. compare the horses of the present unfavorably with these ..f the past, eapeciallj as regardi stamina, and although he nerer goes Into details be suggests again and again that we em wage short-distance racing far more than oar fathers did. Rarijr two-year-old racing he would also have us believe is much more In rogw now than it used to be. and that the commercial as peel of racing Is new much more preferentially considered than in the brave old days. Now, there Is ■o ■ parti.:, of truth iii any of these statements or suggestions. Mr. tie.. rue Hodgmans excellent book. "Sixty Years on the Turf." will conrince anyone that racing men veu those of hiuh social po sttion- had ■ keenes eve t. the main chance half i ceutury sgo than m.-st of them hare now. As for distances and early two-year-eld racing, it K not the fact that we are doing what our forbears w old have discountenanced. Writing from memory •■The special Commissioner" stit.l recently that Little Lady, the dam of Camballo. wen a yearling ia.e. on reference t" the "Calendar" this will be found correct, and proof can a» i.e t:iet of the prevalence of short races f..r horses of all ages. At the shi.w~i.iiry Autumn Meeting, November 15, 1850, the tii i race was ■ handicap sweepstakes, fc r all ages; about three furlongs and a quarter, it was won by Fractions, a m-; year-old gelding by Orlando, carrying 98 pounds, and iMati:i_- a 8eM of -.. which Included four two-year-olds. The fourth race was the Anglesey Stakes, l" sort reigns each, 3 i if.it. with -~ sovereigns added, for yearling ■!.-105 pounds, and Bllles 14X2 pounds: ■ quarter of a mile, straight run in. Nine ailiiiL- went t i the post, and Brst, second and third iu the race finished exactly as the bettlnc foretold. The winner wai Lord Stamfords Lav Oily by Orlando onl of Volley i- ster !•• Voltigeur. She started fav rite : .t 2 to 1. s. and was Mr. v. Days Illy by Tadmor oat of Promise, wlmse starting price was " t.. I, while Mr. Barnards brown colt. Cantab, which was quoted at 7 to -. finished third. Beth Pordham and Chal mer rode in this race. The winner was subsequently named Little Lady. Sh. started winning again In tVbruary ii~ a two-year-old at Nottingham, and ran seventeen times that season, winning ■ goodly proportion of igements. She kept on winning a a three-year-old, when she ran eight times. She also won more than once as a four-year-old, and a-■ Ive-year-oW running live Mines at the former age and four times at the latter. This w:is m isi;:. .ni.l being retired to the stud in 18ft! sh,- produced a bay colt. Warrington, by Young Melbourne, in I8S5— the ■rat time of ■■Mwg and sin- followed this op i,v a succession of thirteen foals, some of which died, but her colt of is7_ was the Two Thoasand Gnlnen winner. Camballo. siie lived until isj, hat was bat ren in her last two seasons. What would be said bow If anyone were to pco-p m yearling races, or three furlongs and a quarter sweepstakes, for tz - Can it »• maintained for I in" i.i that i or four-fnrli a races, which are s:.i.tiy liiuitci! to two-year-old* and the early half of the season, eompan i irtblng but favorably wit i the condition of affairs which prevailed when Little Lady won her yearling race ovei two furlongs? Y- t Little Lady appears t. have been n ne the worse for her strenuoug csreer. No man nowadays woald run a raloable and very well-bred ii!. seventeen tim s a~ ii two-year-old. Little Lady, however, • m-,1 t . that extent, and also brought grist t. the mill .n each of her three succeeding seasons. I .u.t lea s she .mist have i n s wonderful mare, for five as work eon ncing when sb sras a yearlina had ii Impaired her vitality, and sh,. proved I i be a sure jsful and prolific matron. The modern Idea is thai ■ fillj should on no account be bard run. an.l many think s|„. should not be trained after she i- three years old. If she Is to develop Into -broodmare, but in earlier daya there were many In stances besides that of Little Lady t . show that tl. s Is ne.:. ..i i.--~ fallacious. Beeswing, the dam of Newmlnbn r and Alice Hawthorn, the dam of Thor-manhy. ma.i be mentioned in his connection. B th mil tbrongh arduous racing careers, and that, too, I . ills! nees However, in this respect, as in we treat horses with more consideration tl an used to be done in the times under notice, and it raanol i said that our treatment is s, ;;. y i, in iur.- the I i • d a- was thai which Was meted ..tit to Little Lady. After all, there la nothing so very dreadful about r. Ins i ;s over t. furlongs In Novt Mam of them are tried at home over m an earlier period, though ben again tb tendenci is t.. gire then m time. Robert Peck bold me tiiat be found out that Bend r could e... hgfose the Donoaater meeting when the sabs* queu l l»eii. winner was n y«*arllng. Bend Or must, therefore, have Ihi-u subji i.l to some sort of trUl at h as two mouths earlier in the year than when Little Lad] won le-r yearling race, it goes with ,ut the saying however, that she and the second and third In that race had been tried sod well ■ lime or other before they went p Shrewsbury. or the urn k.t would n a . . v . ....... ... i their proapecte. in the I . B. a. it is costomarj to try jrearjiagi in the i»iini; over two furlongs and t. engage them no ording to the speed they then show. Such trials often anticipate quite correctly the tut ure career of the youngsters. I remember receiving a letter l. m the late Colonel Thompson. of the Br..- kdale stud, relative to a yearling tiliy by Minting out of The iprde, by Hermit, it was written some time In March, and was I i th.- effect that they had galloped this till and found her to be in the very highest class, ihi.- seemed passing strange to me. but nevertheless the trial prov I true, for the foBowtng year the filly, then named One I Love, was the unquestionably best of her si i la America: Reverting, however, to my original . point. I think I have bow sufficiently demonstrated that in four-furlong races, as v.. 11 as In the general treat::, at .. OUT a Sea, u e have iu no respects taken sny step whi.-h our ancestors wool 1 have deemed retrograde. We have certainly progressed — not far perhaps, hat still progressed and t. proportion of our races over ■ mile and upwards la l far greater than it used to lx-. That all too many ! of our horses la.-k constitution and conrage is due to the continuous inbreeding to Blacklock and Whalebone through the very limited number of fashionable lines. that, however, is another question altogether, and in an way touches methods of training or the distance of races. Lord Bosebery, by securing such a mare as Signorinetta, f unfashionable Matcfaem descent, maj have set a fashion which, let a- hop.. ji] be widely followed. Brei I era will do well to take note of this, u also of the fact that Boae Yerte, of Herod descent throne. sire. Elf, was bought for Germany for ::. hmi guineas at the recent Newmarket Sales. German breeders are now fully alive to the position, viz.. that the "Fashion" erase, if persisted in on existing lines, will ruin the British thoroughbred. Vi._il.int. in London Sportsman.
