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QUALITY OF AUSTRALIAN THOROUGHBRED. Touching on the effect so much imported bioorl is having on thoroughbred stock in Australia and New Zealand, an Auckland correspondent, sfgniijg himself- - "Maorilander, 11 writes --they4ueyjiitov as follows: "On the question of the relative speed of horses of the present as compared witli those of the past, I cannot speak from experience, though, on the face of it, the time test will always give the old-timers a deal to think about. On the modification of the question, as to whether we in Australasia have made as much relative progress in the breeding of the thoroughbred as other countries, more particularly England, some interesting speculation can be made, and I think a decisive answer arrived at. A decade or two ago, our best horses, such as Newhaven, Aomin, Merman, and Australian Star, showed, themselves to be in the same class as the bnst handicap horses of England, and succeeded in winning a number of valuable races there. Nowadays, almost every racehorse, be he handicapper or selling-plater, which is imported from England before his racing career is over, succeeds in winning one or more of our leading handicaps or weight-for-age races. Horses which have struggled along in third-class company in England take their place quite naturally in the highest class in Australia. "We find the same story repeated in India. Hor ses which might be graded between the first and second-class in Australia are unable to hold their own with English selling-platers. The reason for our comparative falling off is not far to seek, and must be laid at the door of Colonial yearling buyers who have flooded the country with imported sires witli fashionable blood in their veins, and given them the pick of their broodmares, leaving only the squibs and cast-offs fo their Colonial brethren, often their superiors in pace and shape, but, Xntal failing, lacking in fashonable blood. St. Simon was no doubt a great sire, and his best sons are among the best sires in the world today. But because Malster is a brilliant stud success, one would not be justified in making every son of Bill of Portland a lord of the stud. It is liecoming more evident every day that the chances of picking up a fashionably bred sire of class in England for a few hundred pounds are about a hundred to one against. The mediocrity of importations during the past fifteen years seems to be suggested by the fact that no imported sire except Positano and perhaps Ayr Lad die stands out from his fellows over a sequence of years as Bill of Portland and Grafton did in the past, and as Colonial sires in Maltster and Wallace still do. "In New Zealand the position is even worse. A few years ago the best New Zealand horses could rely on holding their own witli the weight-for-age horses of Australia: at the present time they are lucky if they pick up a few small handicaps. Here again the neglect of the Colonial sires is seen. Sons of St. Leger. in Kegel. St. Paul. Si. Hippo. St Clements. Waiuku. Sylvia Park and Papakura. rely lng for their mates almost entirely on half-bred1? or culls, have all produced some fair performers 011 .the flat, and some good hurdlers: but with mod erately good opportunities anv of them might have been as successful as Clanranald. the inferior of most of them on the racecourse, and the only son of St. Leger to get a proper chance at the stud. St. Leger marcs have been so markedly successful as matrons that it seems a thousand" pities that better use was not made of his sons. "To this cloud there is, of course, a silver ?luing. The importation of horses of real class, such as Bronzino and White Star, cannot fail to reViviv the quality of our bloodstock. If the use of sires such as these were supplemented by giving decent opportunities to the best Colonial horses, and English horses with little to recommend them, save their fashionable blood, were allowed to pass their time peacefully and soberly in the land of their birth, the Australasian tuiT would soon regain the position which has lieen slowly slipping awav from it during the past twelve years."
