York. T. Y. C. 5 fur. 59 yds. Mile Course, 1 mile, 8 yds. Last mile and quarter, 1 mile, 2 fur., 15 yds. Last mile and half, 1 mile, 4 fur., 18 yds. Last mile and three quarters, 1 mile, 5 fur., 160 yds. Two-mile Course, 1 mile, 7 fur., 85 yds. Four-mile Course, 3 mile, 7 fur., 24 yds. York Course is situated upon low ground, and, in consequence, becomes very heavy in wet weather.—Turf Expositor.
Racehorse, s. A horse bred to run for prizes.
There is much dispute with regard to the origin of the thorough-bred horse. By some he is traced to both sire and dam to Eastern parentage; others believe him to be the native horse, improved and perfected by judicious crossing with the Barb, the Turk, or the Arabian. “The Stud Book,” which is an authority acknowledged by every English breeder, traces all the old racers to some Eastern origin; or it traces them until the pedigree is lost in the uncertainty of an early period of breeding. If a pedigree of a racer of the present day be required, it is traced back to a certain extent, and ends with a well-known racer;—or, if an earlier derivation be required, that ends either with an eastern horse, or in obscurity.
It must, on the whole, be allowed, that the present English thorough-bred horse is of foreign extraction, improved and perfected by the influence of the climate, and by diligent cultivation. There are some exceptions, as in the case of Sampson and Bay-Malton, in each of whom, although the best horses of their day, there was a cross of vulgar blood; but they are only exceptions to a general rule. In our best racing stables, and, particularly in the studs of the Earls of Grosvenor and Egremont, this is an acknowledged principle; and it is not, when properly considered, a principle at all derogatory to the credit of the country. The British climate, and British skill, made the thoroughbred horse what he is.
Whatever may be the truth as to the origin of the race-horse, the strictest attention has for the last fifty years been paid to pedigree. In the descent of almost every modern racer, not the slightest flaw can be discovered: or when, with the splendid exception of Sampson and Bay-Malton, one drop of common blood has mingled with the pure stream, it has been immediately detected in the inferiority of form, and deficiency of bottom, and it has required two or three generations to wipe away the stain, and get rid of its consequences.
The racer is generally distinguished by his beautiful Arabian head;—his fine and finely-set-on-neck;—his oblique, lengthened shoulders;—well-bent hinder legs;—his ample, muscular quarters—his flat legs, rather short from the knee downward, although not always so deep as they should be;—and his long and elastic pastern. These are separately considered where the structure of the horse is treated of.
The racer, however, with the most beautiful form, is occasionally a sorry animal. There is sometimes a want of energy in an apparently faultless shape, for which there is no accounting; but there are two points among those just enumerated which will rarely or never deceive, a well-placed shoulder, and a well-bent hinder leg.
It has been imagined that the breed of racing horses has lately very considerably degenerated. This is not the case. Thorough-bred horses were formerly fewer in number, and their performances created greater wonder. The breed has now increased twenty-fold, and superiority is not so easily obtained among so many competitors. If one circumstance could, more than any other, produce this degeneracy, it would be our absurd and cruel habit of bringing out horses too soon, and the frequent failure of their legs before they have come to their full power. Childers and Eclipse did not appear until they were five years old: but many of our best horses, and those perhaps, who would have shown equal excellence with the most celebrated racers, are foundered and destroyed before that period.
Whether the introduction of short races, and so young horses, be advantageous, and whether stoutness and usefulness may not thus be somewhat too much sacrificed to speed: whether there may be danger that an animal designed for service may, in process of time, be frittered away almost to a shadow of what he was, in order that at two years old, over the one-mile-course, he may astonish the crowd by his fleetness,—are questions that more concern the sporting man than the agriculturist; and yet they concern the agriculturist too, for racing is principally valuable as connected with breeding, and as the test of breeding. Vide Training.
Racer, s. A Runner, one that contends in speed.