Yearlings? These baby horses often turn out dire failures! An animal costing £2,000 may never win a race! One or two horses, which cost large sums of money, are at this moment probably travelling the country as "sires" at merely nominal fees. On the other hand, a horse which proves successful on the turf attains greater value with each new success it achieves, and at length, like Doncaster and Springfield, it may come to be "worth its weight in gold." "Yearlings" said the late Mr. Merry when he purchased All Heart and No Peel, afterwards known as Doncaster, "are a fearful lottery." He was right in saying so, although at the time he was drawing a prize and didn't know it--he was, in fact, for a sum of 950 gs., purchasing the Derby winner of 1873. The following anecdote related in Parliament by Mr. Gerard Sturt is apropos: In 1825, there was a little mare which belonged to a country apothecary at Newcastle, and her vocation was to go up one street and down, whilst pills and what not were being delivered; well, this little mare of nominal value produced, in as many consecutive years, three of the best animals of their periods, namely, Rubens, Selim, and Castrel. The Deformed was purchased as a filly for £15 with her engagements in four large stakes, all of which she won! She was afterwards sold to a Captain Salt for 1,500 gs., was repurchased for a brood mare at 300 gs. and sold again for 600 gs. to the Marquis of Waterford, at whose sale she was purchased for Her Majesty's breeding stud. II. There are not less, so it has been computed--counting mere foals, yearlings, two, three, four, and five-year-olds, as well as sires and dams--than 10,000 horses devoted to the service of the turf. The brood mares at the stud number, on an average, 3,000, and the number of sires may be estimated at say 350; the net produce of the stud, deducting casualties of many kinds, such as barren mares, slipped foals, deaths, and exportation, may be taken as being 2,000 foals--colts and fillies--per annum. Of that number a considerable percentage never comes upon the racing scene; unfitness for the work of the turf, accidents, and death, being constant factors in determining the L. S. D. of racing. It would be curious to trace the many calamities that occur to prevent horses distinguishing themselves. Two hundred horses may be entered as yearlings for the Derby, but only about five per cent. of the number may contest a given race. Say that there are fourteen or even sixteen runners; what has become of the others? Several will have died; many after being trained will be found to have no chance; and not unlikely several of those entered may be found in the shafts of a cab. Some foals of last year, for instance, may ultimately be trained as horses for ladies; others may be drafted to the hunting-field or to the circus, whilst not a few may ultimately find their way to tramway stables. Many a time and oft has a high-bred horse changed hands for a twenty-pound note.