Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875), Thursday 8 October 1857, page 3


I [SECOND EDITION]

'. " Empire'' Office,

Thursday, 9 a.m.

« VICTORIA.

THE GREAT RACE

WON BY

NEW SOUTH WALES.

By tho arrival of the. steamship Wonga Wonga, ai hoar ago, this morning, wo have Melbourne papera ti tho 6th instant, and foll particulars of the Great Mateh whioh terminated in ' favour of Mr Bowo'a horse

Veno.

The Argu3 of Monday says :-"Notwithstanding thc expectations of our Victorian sportsmen, the greal champion-match, as well as the two by-matches, which came off on Saturday, were decided against us. Thc mare on whose performance our turfites wore willing to roBt their oloim to supremaoy in racing matters is evi-dently inferior, to tbo Sydney horse ; and, whatever may be thought of tho second race, between the horses ol less note-which wo believe tho Victo-rian horse ought to have -won,-wo must find a better animal than "Alice Hawthorne," before we try again for tho championship of-the Australian colo-nies. We trusted too much to the opinion whioh gene-rally prevailed, that the Sydney horses had neither strength'nor endurance ; but the result of Saturdays raoing proved to our own cost that at least one of them was able, not only to beat the best of our horses in a three mile race, but also to come to tbe post again a winner, beating a fresh horse, after a very short period

of rest.

"The inter-colonial matohos are, as we have seen on this occasion, produotive of much general interest, and, when conducted in a fair and generous spirit of rivalry, conduce to good results. They afford an opportunity of forming a correot judgment as to the qualities of tbe horso stock of eaoh oolony, and do far more to stimulate a desire for improvement than the ordinary races, which bring together'only the horses from withins limited rango of country. Victoria has boen settled at a comparatively late period, and the increase in our horse stock has been caused principally by importations and the reception of drafts from Kew South Wales, so that we can scarcely be said to have a breed of horses of our own. Since our groat accession of wealth and population this has been the market for the surplus of the two neigh-bouring .colonies, and, having abundance of money wherewith to purobase, we have already collected within our borders much of the most valuable stack from either sida of us. Tho well-bred horses from Now South Wales have always been taller and more leggy than tho compact Tasmanian horses; still in some of the drafts from the north we used occa-sionally to find a fair proportion of weight-oarrying colts, particularly among thoso with the old " Emigrant", blood in their veins. These are now seldom to be met with ; it is rare to find the union of bloood and bone in the same animal.

" The unexpected demand for calvary horses, to mount tho English regiments suddenly sent to India, bas created quite a sensation, in Sydney. At a public meeting, held a few days since, to devise means for facilitating the collection of the required number as quickly as possible, it was stated that brokon-in horses were not to ? be had and that it was even doubtful if a sufficient number of unbroken colts could be got together in time. The country was said to bo completely drained of strong horses. Those old enough for work have been pur-chased each year from tho breeders for this market ; and, so great is the scaroity supposed to be, that something like an appeal to the patriotism of tho stockowners was deemed necessary in this casefof emergency.

" Looking] at it from a public point of view, the great object of horse-racing is the improvement of the general stock of the country, into which an admixturo of raoing blood so largely enters. To meet our own requirements j wo roust prepare to raise this Itind of stock on au ex-

tensivo scale ; and our breeders should, os muoh as possible, - seek to combine size and strength with high blood. Tho great tendency of tho short races of the pre-sent day is to encourage the rearing of a breed of weedy animals, forced early to a sort of precocious maturity, but quito destitute of theendurancb or strength required for tho road or bush work of this country. It is not in a spirit of old-fogyism that we look back with regret to the colonial horse of twenty years sinco-a mixture of the Cape, Valparaiso, Arab, and English broods, but with tho conviction, almost amounting to a certainty, that nothing like the old stock horse or hackney, able on a pinch to carry his rider a hundred mileB in tho day, is to bo expected from tbe horses lately imported from England, many of them with high-sounding pedegrecs These are either flat-sidod narrow-chested animals,

offering littlo resistance to tho atmosphere in their passage through it, and with but little stowngeroom¿for a day's provision; or elso, in ihe case of thoso few wbioh havo spread out and gained substance, more olosoly resemble an un-gainly giraffe in their outline than than tho engravings of " Flying Childers" or the "Darley Arabian." However it may suit tbe breeders of racing oolts and fillies to bring thom forward and sell them at a very early age, we trust that too much will not bo sacrificed to this especial interest. For the sake of those who,. in their ordinary occupations, have tp depend so muoh on this useful companion and assistant, we hope that our breeders will look moro to the union of blood and bono than to this early fleetness, and that before many years are past wo may have plenty of horsos of our own rearing, able Bucoessfully to contend for tho cham-pionship of the Australian colonies in it three-mile

race." .