The present mania for testing endurance in men and animals
should be carefully watched, for it tends to degenerate into a cruel curiosity. Many of the pedestrians who engage in the 4' long " matches at the Agricultural Hall injure their constitutions for life, and though they are free agents, animals are not. We read, for example, in the Pall Mall Gazette of September 27th, that " it was arranged that two horses belonging to Sir John Astley and Mr. Gretton should compete over a two-mile course with 16 stone 10 lb. in the saddle, Sir John Astley to ride his own horse. The match was run off on Thursday, and resulted in the success of Mr.
Gretton's horse, the off. who had been running under the whip for a long .eaking down and being pulled up.' -
This is the amt. ,,,,ven of the race in the sporting journals, -which are unanimous in condemning such a burlesque of racing To gallop at full racing pace with 16 stone 10 lb. in the saddle a horse whom one journal describes as half-broken down before he starte‘1,' is nothing short of cruelty to animals." We suppose the idea was to test to the utmost the endurance of horses loaded like horses in a dragoon regiment ; but the result must have been torture to the beasts. If Messrs. Pickford deliberately overloaded a van and started it for Brighton, in order to test a team, Mr. Colam would prosecute, and Sir John Astley and Mr. Gretton would approve the prosecution. Yet what is the moral or, for that matter, the legal difference between over-driving and racing overburdened horses P
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