RACING AT HOME AND ABROAD
and trainers who had been gloomy and dull twenty-four hours before
were now smiling and cheery, with plenty to say. Yet, as was indicated
just now, by racing time on the same day nearly every trace of the rain
had disappeared, and by the end of the week the ground was quite hard
again.
    The gallops on the Limekilns, where the ground is even more friable
and crumbly than on other parts of the Heath, and the tan tracks, are
much appreciated in times of drought, but there are trainers who
greatly dislike the tan, and who will never use it except in the case of
a regular cripple who is being persevered with on the offchance that
he may stand another preparation. It is thought by some that galloping
on the tan causes horses to lose their action, and therefore to become
slower in their gallop, and doubtless constant galloping on an artificial
track has a bad effect upon some horses. In the same way this is, at
times, noticeable at horse shows held at Olympia and the Agricultural
Hall at Islington, where, especially in the harness classes, certain
horses g ive their best show on the tan, while others do far better in a
grass show -ring, where they can extend themselves more freely. The
instance of a harness horse named Authority, some twelve years ago,
comes to mind. This horse, a very fine goer, could not do himself
justice at the London shows, but when he went to Richmond, and was
shown on the grass, and in a ring four times the size of those at the
indoor shows, carried all before him, and came out the champion harness
performer of the most important outdoor show in the kingdom.
    The Limekilns are the most popular of all the Newmarket gallops,
but they are mostly closed in doubtful weather, and in fact kept to
a great extent for times of drought. Naturally enough, they are most
used in the summer months, and they possess an additional advantage
in the plantations which fringe them, for they afford plenty of shade in
which horses can be walked about between gallops on a very hot
morning. There is a plantation adjoining the July Course also, but
horses which are galloped on the racecourse-familiarly known as " the
Cambridge side "-are much exposed, and after a gallop have to be
taken some distance before they can find shade. The American
trainers, who were numerous at Newmarket in the first few years of
the century, loved to have their horses in the sun, and took every
advantage of it, but their charges had been mostly bred in America,
and had in their foalhood and yearling days experienced a far hotter
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