208                                                    THE FRIEND OF ALL.

TROTTING IN THE UNITED STATES.

American Trotting................... 208

Beginning of Trots.................. 209

Breeding Trotters.................... 209

Converting Pacers................... 211

Great Trotting Families............. 209

Horse-Racing........................ 208

King or Queen of the Turf.......... 210

Market for Trotters.................. 211

Maud S.............................. 210

National Trotting Association........ 210

Not all Prizes......................211

“ Records”.......................... 210

Rysdyk's Hambletonian............. 211

Size of Purses....................... 210

Track Requirements......... ....... 209

Lou Dillon. Record, Oct. 24, 1903; 1.58½.

Horse-Racing.—This has been practiced from
very early times. In the Iliad the various in­
cidents of the chariot race at the funeral games
held in honor of Patroclus are detailed with great
vividness. And in all history, races are referred
to. In England they have attained the character
of national institutions ; and the St. Leger, Derby
and Oaks, Ascot, Goodwood, Epsom and New-
market, are practically recognized as integral
parts of the British constitution, and in their
honor Parliament adjourns, to allow its honorable
members opportunity to attend, as systematically
as our Congress adjourns over the Christmas holi­
days. But the word Racing still keeps up its
original meaning, the speeding of horses in the
way of running; and in America, other words
have to be employed when the contest is one of
any other motion.

American Trotting.—We borrow freely from an
article in the Encyclopœdia Britannica, written
by W. T. Chester, Esq., of New York. The de­
velopment of speed in the trotting horse through
systematic breeding and training is one of the
great industries of North America, and in no
other portion of the world, except in Russia, is it
pursued to any great extent. This interest, which
has attained vast proportions, is entirely the
growth of a century, dating back to the importa­
tion to Philadelphia from England, in 1788, of
the thorough­bred horse Messenger. This was
a gray stallion, by Mambrino, 1st dam by Turf,
2d dam by Regulus, 3d dam by Starling, 4th dam
by Fox, 5th dam Gipsy, by Bay Bolton, 6th dam
by Duke of Newcastle‘s Turk, 7th dam by Byerly
Turk, 8th dam by Taffolet Barb, 9th dam by
[ Peace‘s White Turk. He was eight years old

TROTTING IN THE UNITED STATES.

209

when imported into the United States. He was I
at the stud for twenty years, in the vicinity of
Philadelphia and New York, serving a number of
thorough­bred mares, but a far greater number
of cold-blooded mares, and in the progeny of the
latter the trotting instinct was almost invariably
developed, while his thorough­bred sons, who
became scattered over the country, were also
noted for transmitting the trotting instinct. That
Messenger was the fountain-head of American
trotting is shown by the fact that almost every
trotter of merit, whose pedigree is reasonably well
established, traces to him in one or more lines,
and the more Messenger strains there are in a
pedigree the greater is esteemed its value. It
was years after the death of Messenger, how­
ever, before these facts became apparent; the
taste of the country went to running contests.

Beginning of Trotting.—The first public trotting
race in the United States of which there is any
account was in 1818, when the gray gelding
Boston Blue was matched to trot a mile in 3
minutes, a feat deemed impossible, but he won,
though the time of his performance has not been
preserved. From about that date interest in
this gait began to increase ; breeders of trotters
in a small way sprang up, and horses were
trained for trotting contests. The problem of
breeding trotters has been necessarily found to
be a much more complex one than that of breed­
ing the thorough­bred, as in the latter case pure
blood lines of long-recognized value could be
relied on, while in the former, the best results
were constantly being obtained from most unex­
pected sources.

Great Trotting Families.—At the present day, the
leading families are the Hambletonian, of which
the modern head was Rysdyk‘s Hambletonian, a
bay horse foaled in 1849, got by Abdallah (traced
to imported Messenger on the side of both sire
and dam) out ot the Charles Kent mare by imp.
Bellfounder, with two crosses to imp. Messenger
on her dam's side; the Mambrinoes, whose mo­
dern head was Mambrino Chief, foaled 1844,
by Mambrino Paymaster, a grandson of imp.
Messenger; the Bashaws, founded by Young
Bashaw, foaled 1822, by Grand Bashaw, an Ara­
bian horse, dam Pearl, by First Consul; the
Clays, springing from Henry Clay, a grandson of
Young Bashaw through Andrew Jackson, and
properly a branch of the Bashaw family, but ar­
bitrary usage, of which there is much in Ameri­
can trotting lineage, makes them distinct; the
Stars, springing from StockhoIm's American
Star, by Duroc, son of imp. Diomed ; the Mor­
gans, whose founder was Justin Morgan, foaled
1793, by a horse called True Briton, or Beautiful
Bay, who was probably thorough­bred; the
Black Hawks, a branch of the Morgan family;
14

the Blue Bulls, descended from Doyle's Blue Bull,
foaled 1855, a pacer, sired by a pacer of the same
name, dam by Blacknose, son of Medoc; the
Canadians, whose best representatives were St.
Lawrence and Pacing Pilot, horses of unknown
pedigree; the Golddusts, another branch of the
Morgan family ; and the Royal Georges, spring­
ing from Tippoo, a horse who was probably by
Ogden's Messenger, son of imp. Messenger.
There are many subordinate branches of these
leading families not named here, and in some
cases trotters of great speed have been produced
which do not trace to any of the sources men­
tioned.

Breeding Trotters.—The breeder has an extensive
field before him, and the questions of in­breeding,
or out-crossing, or the value of thorough­bred
crosses, pacing crosses, etc., have to be consi­
dered, and are abundantly discussed. There are
many large and successful establishments for
breeding trotters. All of them are extensive in
acreage, while on several a hundred or more
brood-mares are kept, besides a number of stal­
lions. As a rule, the stallions do service outside
the farms where they are owned, but in some
cases they are reserved strictly for home use,
Very large prices are frequently paid for young­
sters, solely on the strength of their breeding. In
1876 $13,000 was paid for two two-year-old fillies,
and $41,200 for a lot of thirteen, nearly all young.
Steinway, a three-year-old colt, was sold in 1879
to go to California, for $12,000; and in 1878
$21,000 was paid for the four-year-old filly, Maud
S., after she had trotted a mile in public in 2.17½.
—a speed which she reduced in 1881 to 2.10¼.
Much larger sums have been paid, however, for
matured trotters, such as $40,000 for the stallion
Smuggler, $38,000 for Pocahontas, $35,000 for
Dexter, $36,000 for Rarus, and long prices for
many others; St. Julien, the trotter with the
fastest record at the close of 1879, was held at
$50,000, while Rysdyk's Hambletonian, Messen­
ger, Duroc, and Volunteer were valued, in their
prime, at $100,000 each.

Track Requirements.—Since the early days of
American trotting, the advance has been rapid
and the changes marked. After the performance
of Boston Blue, mentioned above, more attention
was paid to the gait, but for a long time the races
were generally under saddle, and at long dis­
tances, 3 miles being rather the favorite. The
best of the old-time trotters were Edwin Forrest,
who trotted a mile in 2.31½ in 1834 ; Dutchman,
whose 3 miles under saddle in 7.32½ is still the
best on record ; Ripton ; Lady Suffolk, who trot­
ted a mile in 2.26½ in 1843, and headed the list of
performers; Mac, Tacony, etc. Since 1850, how­
ever, the public taste has settled upon the style
of race called “ mile heats, best three out of five,

210

THE FRIEND OF ALL.

in harness,” as the favorite, and nine out of
ten contests are of this character. By “in har­
ness” is meant that the horse draws a sulky, a
light two-wheeled vehicle, in which the driver
sits close to the horse, with his legs on each
side of the animal‘s flanks. These sulkies often
weigh less than forty pounds. The driver is
required to weigh, with the blanket on which
he sits, 150 pounds, while for saddle-races the
regulation weight is 145 pounds. Each heat of
a mile is a separate race; 20 minutes are al­
lowed between heats; and the horse that first
places three heats to his credit wins the race.
There are various penalties imposed upon a
horse that breaks into a run in a trotting race.
The driver is required to pull him to a trot as
quickly as possible; if the horse gains by run­
ning, the judges set him back at the finish
twice the distance he has gained, in their esti­
mation, by running; and for repeated “breaks”
they can declare him distanced.

“Records.”—The first-class tracks are of an
oval shape, with long stretches and easy curves,
measuring 1 mile at 3 feet distance from “the
pole,” as the inner railing of the track is called.
The time in which the leading horse trots each
heat is accurately kept, placed on a blackboard in
front of the judges’ stand for the information of
the public, and also placed in the book of the
course. The fastest time that any trotter has
made is thus entered as his “ record.” This is
one of the distinctive features of trotting in
America. The purses given by the associations
owning tracks are generally divided into classes,
such as for horses that have never beaten 3 mi­
nutes, 2.40, 2.20, etc Hence it is an object, as a
rule, for the record of a trotter to be kept as slow
as possible, that he may be eligible to compete in
slow classes ; and as the purses are divided into
three or four moneys, and the second money is
usually half as large as the first, drivers fre­
quently “pull” a superior animal, and content
themselves with an inferior portion of the purse
for the sake of avoiding a record, which attaches
only to the winner of a heat: and from this cause
springs a great deal of dishonest driving. It is
in the power of the judges, when they think that a
horse is not being driven to win, to substitute
another driver; and this is often done.

Size of Purses.—Prior to 1866 purses for trotters
were small; match races were more in vogue, and
the trotting turf was in bad odor. In that year
an association was formed at Buffalo, N. Y.,
which undertook to remedy the evil, and inau­
gurated its efforts by offering the then unprece­
dented sum of $10,500 for a trotting meeting of
four days’ duration. The experiment was success­
ful ; other cities followed the example of Buffalo;
larger and larger purses were given ; and at Buf­
falo in 1872 the prizes amounted to $70,000.

Twice at this track $20,000 has been given for
a single race. Other cities are also in the habit
of giving large purses, and the amount offered
in the United States and Canada, during a
single year has reached nearly $1,500,000. In­
dividual trotters, in the course of a long turf
career, earn enormous amounts. The most
remarkable instance of this was the mare
Goldsmith Maid, by Alexander‘s Abdallah (a
son of Rysdyk‘s Hambletonian), out of an
Abdallah mare. She began trotting in 1866,
and left the turf in 1878, when 21 years old,
and her winnings amounted to over $200,000.

National Trotting Association,—-This organization
was formed in 1869, and embraces in its member-
ship all the principal tracks of the continent.
All members of this association respect the pe­
nalties imposed by any other member, and exclu­
sion from the privileges of one is exclusion from
the privileges of all. This has had a great ten­
dency to reform abuses in the trotting turf,
enabling severe penalties to be inflicted for in­
fractions of the rules, a very elaborate code of
which has been published by the National Trot­
ting Association, which is revised triennially.

King or Queen of the Turf.—In trotting races the
time test is supreme. The animal which has the
fastest record for one mile in harness is, until
deposed,, king or queen of the trotting turf.
Lady Suffolk, with her record of 2.26½ in 1843,
held this honor till 1853, when Tacony trotted in
2.25½ under saddle; Flora Temple wrested it from
him in 1856 by trotting in 2.24½ in harness. This
latter mare, in 1859, trotted a mile in 2.19¾, a
feat which the best horsemen thought would
never be repeated. Dexter‘s record was 2.17¼ in
1867, and Goldsmith Maid‘s, in 1871, was 2.17,
which she reduced, by successive efforts, to 2.16¾,
2.16, 2.15, 2.14¾, and finally, in 1874, to 2.14. In
1878 Rarus trotted a mile in 2.13¼, and in Octo­
ber 1879 the bay gelding St. Julien, by Volun­
teer, son of Rysdyk‘s Hambletonian, dam by
Henry Clay, trotted a mile in California in 2.12¾,
which he reduced at Hartford in 1880 to2.11¼.
He had to surrender the lead in 1881 to the
chestnut mare Maud S., by Harold, son of Rys-
dyk‘s Hambletonian, dam Miss Russell by Pilot,
Jr., who in 1881 trotted in 2.10¼. This mare has
been already mentioned, as having been bought
in 1878, when four years old, for $21,000. She
remains queen, with one rival near the throne;
but is regarded as quite able largely to reduce
her own record. Not only has she trotted the
fastest single mile, but she has trotted the three
fastest consecutive heats: at Belmont Park,
Philadelphia, in 2.12, 2.13¼, 2.12½. Rarus trotted
three heats at Hartford in 1878 in 2.13¾, 2.13½,
and 2.15. There is a great diversity of opinion
among the best informed horsemen as to the

TROTTING IN THE UNITED STATES.                                       211

limit of trotting speed, but none fix it slower
than 2.10, while the more sanguine believe that
a mile will yet be made by a trotter in two
minutes.

Season of 1883.—The one rival to Maud S.,
just alluded to, is the black gelding Jay-Eye-
See, by Dictator (again the Rysdyk Hambletonian
strain), dam Midnight. This curious and utterly
prosaic name is taken from the initials of the
horse‘s owner, J. I. Case, Esq. In Chouler‘s Turf
Register of 2.30 horses, made up to June 1882,
this name is conspicuous by its absence ; but at
the end of 1882, Jay-Eye-See had a record of
2.19. This record he reduced in 1883, at Provi­
dence, R. L, Sept. 15, to 2.10¾, thus stepping in
midway between Maud S.‘s 2.10¼ and St. Julien‘s
2.11¼. Later in the season, at the old Fleetwood
Park, Jay-Eye-See beat St. Julien in three straight
heats; but the track was heavy, St. Julien not up
to himself, and the time at Providence was not
equaled. When Maud S. and Jay-Eye-See are
matched in a trot, both in their best “form,”
with a good day and track, another slice will
probably be pared from the present best record
of 2.10¼. By that time some other Hambleton-
ian colt, now as unknown as was Jay-Eye-See in
June 1882, may be shouldering between the two
present competitors, or may surpass them both.
Jay-Eye-See is so perfectly balanced in his action
as not to need to be heavily shod. He wears
eight-ounce shoes forward and four-ounce shoes
behind. He eats in utter contempt of some
doctor's saws, with a pailful of water near him,
into which he dips his nose with each mouthful
of oats, and moistens his hay in the same man­
ner.

Converting Pacers.—The pacing gait, in which
the front and hind legs on the same side are
moved in the same direction simultaneously, is
admitted to be faster than the trotting, in which
the near fore leg and off hind leg move together;
but as pacing is not fashionable, and small purses
are given for contests between pacers, a great
deal of skill has been expended, of late years, in
converting pacers to trotters. This is done by
means of toe-weights on the forward feet, which
are knobs of brass or iron screwed into the hoof
or fastened to the shoe, by means of which a
competent trainer can not only change a pacing
into a trotting horse, but can correct any errors
of gait in a natural trotter. With inveterate
pacers very heavy weights have to be used, but
these can gradually be lessened as the horse
becomes accustomed to the trot. So effective
are these weights found that there are very few
fast trotters upon whom they are not used to
some extent, unless the same object is effected
bv wearing a very heavy forward shoe. In the
season of 1883, a pacing horse, Johnston, covered

a mile in 2.10. But—it was with a running mate.
Putting a running mate by the side of a trotter
or a pacer in harness is very much like supple­
menting a horse with a locomotive. In either
case, if the horse can only move his feet fast
enough, the auxiliary will carry him along, do­
ing the work. Nevertheless, it was something
that Johnston could swing his feet and sides in
that time, even if the running mate did haul him
along.

Market for Trotters.—The market for American
trotters is by no means confined to those intend­
ing to use them for track purposes. While there
are probably ten thousand in training, at least
an equal number are used by gentlemen for road
purposes; and there is great rivalry among
wealthy men with a taste for driving, to secure
the best stable, and especially the fastest double
team. In September 1877, Mr. W. H. Vander-
bilt drove his team, composed of Small Hopes
and Lady Mac, a full mile over Fleetwood Park
track, near New York City, in 2.23, which is 3½
seconds faster than the best record for a mile by
a double team, the 2.23 performance not being a
technical record.

Rysdyk's Hambletonian.—This horse has had a
greater influence on the breed of trotting horses
than any other since Messenger, from whom he
was descended by both parents. He, his sons,
grandsons and great-grandsons are the progeni­
tors of more than three hundred of the horses
who have made 2.30 or better. In this list are
Maud S., Jay-Eye­ See, St. Julien, Clingstone,
Goldsmith Maid, Dexter, Trinket, Hattie Wood­
ward, Judge Fullerton, So-So, Santa Claus,
Gloster, Great Eastern, Piedmont, Darby, Rob.
McGregor, Edwin Thorne, etc. etc. It would
be interesting to compare the average value
of all the colts he served with the five hundred
dollars each charged for his services. Like the
Patent Office business, while there are un­
doubtedly many and great prizes, there are
also a multitude of blanks. Even among men,
a great sire does not always produce a great
son, and the sire is only one factor in the off­
spring. The Mambrinos follow the Hamble-
tonians, a “ bad second.”

On the following page we have grouped the
horses under their best record. Daniel Web­
ster is reported to have told a young lawyer
who complained that the legal profession was
crowded, that there was plenty of room higher
up. So with the trotters. How fast the com­
petitors thin out, as the time lessens ! And
what a change from Hiram Woodruffs time,
when “ 2.40 on the plank “ meant a first-class
trot, to the present, when the usual lists of
trotters ignore all horses slower than 2.10 !

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