The horse, necessarily, in those days, when locomotion was only obtainable through its agency, was of prime importance: farriery was fairly understood, and some voluminous disquisitions on it were published, with the most curious receipts for the various ills horseflesh is heir to, and elaborate engraving of fleams, firing irons, bits (some of them very cruel), and all sorts of harness--even down to currycombs, dandy-brushes, and stable utensils. But it is not here that the hack or roadster is to be spoken of, but the horse kept for sport--the race horse--about which they had already found out the fact, 'Like Race Horses cost more in keeping them than they're worth.'[377] The Queen was fond of racing, and gave her 100_l._ gold cups to be run for, as now: nay more, she not only kept race horses, but ran them in her own name. Her six-year-old grey gelding Pepper ran for her gold cup at York (over Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings) on July 28, 1712. Over the same course, and for the same stake, on August 3, 1714, ran her grey horse Mustard, by the Taffolet Barb, which, according to the _Daily Courant_ of May 14, 1714, was entered to run 'in Whitsun week at Guildford in Surrey for the 50_l._ plate'; and, sad to tell, her brown horse Star (afterwards called Jacob) ran at York for a plate of the value of 14_l._, and won it, on July 30, 1714, the very day on which the Queen was struck with apoplexy, expiring the next day. [Footnote 377: _Tunbridge Walks._] She paid a visit to Newmarket in April 1705, going to Cambridge once or twice during her stay. Luttrell says: 'Aprill 26, 1705. The queen has ordered her house at Newmarket to be rebuilt, and gave 1000_l._ towards paving the town; and bought a running horse of Mr. Holloway, which cost a 1000 guineas, and gave it to the prince.' Prince George shared his august consort's love of horse-racing, and in the _Gazette_, June 18/21, 1705, we find: 'These are to give notice, That his Royal Highness the Prince is pleased to give a Gold Plate, value One Hundred Guineas to be run for at Black Hambleton in Yorkshire, over the four Miles old Beacon course, the last Thursday in July, by any Horse five years old last Foaling time: No Horse to be admitted to run but such as bring a Certificate from the Breeder of his Horses Age; and likewise to be judged and approved to be no older than aforesaid, by the Gentlemen whose Horses run for the said Plate; each horse to carry ten Stone weight, and start at the usual hours.