The Racehorse in Training : with Hints on Racing and Racing Reforms

BfHBVnBBBBttBlH LIBKAKY UNIVERSITY^ PENNSYLVANIA FAIRMAN ROGERS COLLECTION ON HORSEMANSHIP < \ \\ THE RACEHORSE IN TRAINING Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/racehorseintraOOdayw THE RACEHORSE IN TRAINING Dints mi Storing anfr Sating $etais TO WHICH IS ADDED A CHAPTER ON "SHOEING" By WILLIAM DAY FIFTH EDITION LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL Limited 1885 HfcW BOLTON CtNTEB ms c&P- 2, gnngag: CLAY AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS. PREFACE. In bringing before the public a work that has for its specific subject the training of the racehorse, and incident- ally offers some observations on turf matters generally, the author feels the need of its indulgence. The experience gathered as the result of thirty years un- wearied labour in the management of a large racing-stud, is, he feels, the best apology he can put forward for the attempt to write comprehensively on matters never before so treated by a trainer. In order to inform, to please, and to encourage the student, a thorough knowledge of the subject must be supplemented by facts clearly stated, and by arguments based on experiences that have stood the test of time. It is perhaps too common to represent technical or professional matters as full of mystery to the unlearned. Such a pretence would be out of place here. Our subject is one easy J of comprehension, and it is the intention and desire of the writer to apply to it the simple treatment of which it is susceptible ; to set forth practical knowledge and important and ascertained truths deduced from daily observation in a 3 —t? manner intelligible to the ordinary reader. £ <<o vi PREFACE. This is the work that the author has undertaken to do. He feels there is something of presumption in the attempt to write on a topic of so wide an interest and of so national an importance, whilst so many of his professional contem- poraries, pre-eminently fitted for the task, are silent. It is an undertaking which only a trainer can hope to complete with any degree of satisfaction to himself or benefit to others. No one seeking information would read a book on Patho- logy written by any one but a fully qualified physician, or on Political Economy, unless its author were thoroughly versed through experience and study in the features and neces- sities of his country. It is, therefore, not assuming too much to conclude that the fittest person to write on training, and on matters more immediately connected with the turf, must be a trainer. He has knowledge and practical experience which are denied to others moving in a different sphere, however exalted, except at second-hand. Information, however good, if transmitted by a process of delegation, cannot fail to lose in its course something of its value. For these reasons the author has ventured to record his own experiences of the training of the racehorse and of other matters connected with the turf; and has supplemented the opinions deduced therefrom with those of able and practical men. The design of the book is to treat, in the first place, as exhaustively as the writer's ability and experience will per- mit, the process of perfecting the horse for the course; then briefly to review and compare racing as it was and as it is, and to draw such inferences as the study of the subject PREFACE. vii suggests ; and, lastly, to offer a few suggestions for reform of turf proceedings, which, in his humble opinion, would be of considerable benefit to this chief of our national sports. To treat the subject comprehensively is his desire. It will be found, therefore, that his suggestions are not confined to the technical and ordinary affairs of the every-day routine of a training-stable. He has endeavoured to the best of his ability to examine other matters which are certainly not inferior in interest. Thus, he attempts to show under what circumstances some horses vanquish or are vanquished in their public engagements. He has added, so far as memory serves him, many memorable sayings, and the accounts of notable doings of the most successful men and conspicuous characters on the turf; as well as of others who have left it for their long home, who, whilst here, were known for their parsimony or their extravagance, as makers or as spenders of fortunes, with other anecdotes which have occurred to him as having some public interest. This then, being the scope of the work, the author ventures to launch it before the world, leaving it as it stands with all its shortcomings and inadvertencies to the lenient con- sideration which may be asked for a book that has no other pretence than to advance the results of practical knowledge, and to supply what may be a possible need That all should have been said that may be said on the various matters discussed, is impossible. The writer must be content in the knowledge of having done the best in hi} power to lay before the public the results of the experience mi PREFACE. of many years in a concise and intelligible form. He should perhaps add, in conclusion, that in the rare instances in which recent events show his facts or suggestions in a new or altered light, it has been thought better not to attempt to remodel that which has been already written, but to draw attention to any apparent discrepancies by the use of footnotes. WoodYATES, February, 1880. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. The favourable reception of the earlier editions of his work, has induced the author to consider whether it is possible to improve or extend it ; and it has been suggested to him by many whose interest in the subject is well known, that on one topic, highly important to all owners of horses —"Shoeing"—a chapter might advantageously be added. This has been done ; and in treating the subject, the aim has been to deal with facts and to avoid speculation. Though no new discovery can be claimed, it is hoped that it will be found, in the result, that the best method of shoeing and of the treatment of the foot has been not only discussed but actually verified ; and that the prevention which, in the diseases of the feet, as in all others, is better than cure, has been placed nearer the reach of all. It would be ungrateful on the author's part if he did not avail himself of this opportunity to express his sense of the generous treatment of his critics. Lengthy and favourable notices of his book have been the rule without an exception, and in these he feels its faults have been extenuated, its virtues extolled. Shipton, Marlborough, May, 1 88 1. — CONTENTS CKAP. VAGS I. —THE TRAINING STABLES ... -, . I II. —VENTILATION AND LIGHT ... ... 9 III. —STABLE MANAGEMENT , : . IS IV. —STABLE MANAGEMENT (continued). .21 V.—SICKNESS AND CASUALTIES . 29 VI. —CONDITION 4 1 1 VII.—CONDITION (continued) • 5 VIII. —THE TRAINING GROUND 59 IX.—BREAKING 65 X. —PREPARATION 75 XI. preparation (continuea) .... > » 9 1 XII. preparation (concluded) ..-...». 104 XIII.—HINTS ON PURCHASING "3 XIV.—THE PURCHASE OF YEARLINGS 123 XV.—TRIALS . , MO XVI. —TRIALS rontinued) 149 xii CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGB XVII. —JOCKEYS 160 XVIII.—JOCKEYS (continued) 168 xix.—the race and its responsibilities 1 73 xx.—weights and distances 193 xxi. —professional hardships 209 xxii.—the racehorse as he was and is 225 xxiii. —racing, past and present . .... 234 xxiv.— betting as it is . , 245 xxv.—betting as it might be 256 xxvi.—practicable reforms 269 xxvii.—minor evils of the racecourse 280 xxviii. —shoeing and the foot 292 xxix.—attacks on the turf . .' . 303 Index 319 Appendix 336 — THE RACEHORSE IN TRAINING. CHAPTER I. THE TRAINING STABLES. Introduction—Scope and design of the work—The training stables—The buildings described—Tile roof recommended—The loose-boxes, stalls, and partitions Corn and hay stores ; screening the corn—Windows and airholes—Boxes and stalls both necessary, and why— Disposal of the manure—Supply of water The pavement ; its material and slope—Drains condemned —The yard. BEFORE proceeding to give the results of my experience for the last thirty years as a trainer and for many years previously as a jockey, it will possibly be some convenience to the reader to sketch shortly the plan followed in the different chapters. First, in precedence, and deservedly so—as on the hygienic principles upon which they are built and conducted so much of success or failure depends—will be treated the Stables, and their interior economy, with a glance at some of the casualties arising from neglect of salutary rules in this important department. Next will come remarks upon that very interesting subject, Condition. It is one that deserves a separate notice, for on none is there more divergence of opinion and, it may be added, general misconception. * In their proper order will follow observations on the Training-ground, and on the vital and arduous work of 2 THE TRAINING STABLES. preparation, matters which cannot be dismissed without an attempt, at least, to handle them exhaustively. As horses have to be bought as well as trained, a few hints on purchasing will here fitly find a place. Trials will appropriately come next, and will occupy a good deal of our attention. The subject is a technical one little understood, and will warrant, it is hoped, the space devoted to it. Then with some notice of the jockeys of to-day, old and young, heavy and light, and the anxious moments they frequently occasion to the trainer, we shall come to the duties imposed upon owner and trainer alike when the racehorse is brought to the post fit to run.

Load more