vanity, to give him his best beloved sport, to enable him to make war,
and, above all, to run away. The distances that these horses can go on
scant rations and small quantities of water seem incredible, while that
they can carry heavy weight without inconvenience is entirely true, for
I have tried them. But we have heard weird stories of them from the
Arabic poets themselves, and also from the English who have used what
they could get for their sports in India, where pony racing has ever
been, since the English occupation, a most attractive diversion. A
frequent expression that one comes across in old books of life in India
is that some named Arab horse had a head so small that it could be put
in a quart cup. That, of course, was an absurd exaggeration, but they
undoubtedly have very small and handsome heads. Their heads, I am sure,
were never so small nor their necks so long as the painters have
represented the heads and necks of the Darley Arabian and the Godolphin
Barb to have been. At that time in England, however, the painters even
took the liberty of exaggerating the length of neck and diminutiveness
of head of the women who sat to them. It was the fashion of the time,
and to that fashion we owe the loss of correct likenesses of two of the
famous horses of those breeds that have left their impress upon the
fleetest racers in the world, besides contributing the reproducing
capacity to all the horse types that amount to anything in the civilized
world.
CHAPTER THREE
THE THOROUGHBRED IN AMERICA
In the previous chapter I have told, as well as I could, how the English
race-horse was developed by a commingling of Oriental blood with that of
horses that had been used for sporting purposes in our mother country. I
confess that my explanation must seem very slipshod to any who are
looking for a mathematically exact exposition of facts. Nothing would
have pleased me better than to have been able to gratify the natural
craving that people have for exactness. But I cannot be less general
than I have, for more specific information is not at my command. It was
simply demonstrated by practical experiments that the mixture of the
bloods mentioned produced a very fast and sturdy horse that was superior
to what had previously been known in England, together with the more
important fact that this new Anglo-Arab was a type that was reproducing
and kept on improving in speed and staying qualities so long as the
cardinal principle of breeding: “like produces like” was adhered to with
the comprehensive intelligence which made the rule embrace performance,
conformation and blood. To the narrow-minded the law “like produces
like,” indicates that the progeny of the fastest stallion and the
fastest mare, when breeding for speed, would be faster than either
parent. It is a well-known fact that mares whose fleetness and gameness
has been demonstrated by long careers on the turf are rarely successful
as dams. Of course, there have been exceptions to this general
statement, but notwithstanding these exceptions, the narrow-minded
application of the rule breaks down just at this point. It is likeness
in blood, conformation and general characteristics that the rule more
particularly refers to. At any rate, the English had, by the middle of
the eighteenth century, developed a distinctive type of horse of most
marvelous fleetness and courage and with a blood prepotency that has
been so great, that after a century and a half the Thoroughbred is as
much improved over what he was at the beginning as the beginners were
better than the common stock of England a century earlier. And this is
the type that we call to-day in America the Thoroughbred.
The importation of the Thoroughbred into this country began in Colonial
Virginia, where there was then probably more sporting blood than there
is now, when it cannot be said to be at all pallid, but on the contrary
very red. The first Thoroughbred of which there is record, and the
record is not as exact as we should like, was brought to Virginia in
1730, by Messrs. Patton and Gist, and was called Bulle Rock. He was said
to have been foaled in 1718, and to have been sired by the Darley
Arabian, first dam by the Byerly Turk. That was good breeding, and the
gentlemen of Virginia accepted, to an extent, at least, the invitation
of Bulle Rock’s owners to use his services in improving the general
stock of the Old Dominion, for every now and then in the very oldest
records he appears in the genealogy. How good the horses were that were
landed in Virginia previous to this time, we can not say, but only
presume that they were as good as the importers could find and afford to
buy, for they were fox hunters and hard riders from the beginning of
their coming. After Bulle Rock’s coming to Virginia, very quickly
Dabster, Jolly Ranger, Janus, and Fearnaught followed.
The South Carolinians were not long behind the Virginians in their
importations, and by 1760 a jockey club had been established in
Charleston, and regular race meetings were held. Many of the wealthy
land owners imported and bred horses for these contests. In the same
year that this club was founded, Colonel De Lancey, of New York, brought
out Lath from England, and a little later Wildair, the horse supposed by
some to have been the great grandsire of the dam of Justin Morgan,
founder of the Morgan type of Vermont. About the same time there came to
New York the Cub Mare and Fair Rachel, both still famous in the
pedigrees in the “American Stud Book.” These matrons found homes in
Virginia, and assisted in the making of those old time “four mile heat”
horses, the only kind which our ancestors deemed really first rate.
Before the Revolutionary War there was much racing in Long Island as
well as in Virginia and the Carolinas, but the great contests between
states and sections did not begin till a later date. During the
Revolutionary War there were few importations of Thoroughbreds, but when
the young country had a little recovered in her industries from the
effects of that conflict, the importations began again and in 1788 the
gray stallion Messenger, the founder in some measure of our trotting
stock, was brought out, and in 1799 the Derby winner Diomed—the most
important of all horses, so far as race-horses in America are
concerned—came out to Virginia. Of Messenger, much will be said in the
proper place; of Diomed, here is the place to speak of his record and
his influence on the Thoroughbreds born to America. As a race-horse he
was par excellence the horse of his day in England, carrying practically
everything before him while that day lasted. But he was kept in training
too long—for what may be called two days instead of one—and rather lost
his fame before he was retired to the stud. In the stud he was
successful, but was not fashionable, his standing fee being reduced to
two guineas before he was sold to Colonel Hoomes to be taken to
Virginia. In Virginia he was an immense success as a sire, and few
successful horses of American stock up to the present time lack a strain
of this blood. Among his American progeny were Sir Archie, Florizel,
Potomac, Peacemaker, Top Gallant, Hamiltonian, Vingt-un, Duroc, Hampton,
Commodore Trixton, the dam of Sir Henry and the dam of Eliza White. He
was in the stud only eight years in this country, but left an
imperishable impression. While he lived he dominated all other stallions
in America, and afterwards his sons worthily took his place. He was a
chestnut, 15.3 in stature, and was got by Florizel out of a Spectator
mare, her dam by Blank, grandam by Childers out of Miss Belvoir by Gray
Grantham, and so forth. The greatest race-horse of Diomed’s get in
America was Sir Archy; and Sir Archy rivaled his sire’s performances in
the stud. He was retired early and, living to a great age, had
opportunities denied to Diomed.
[Illustration:
LEXINGTON
Bred by Dr. Warfield and owned by Mr. Ten Broeck and Mr. Alexander
]
Before the death of Sir Archy, racing was well established in America in
several sections and was pre-eminently the sport of gentlemen. The
wagers made were heavy—would be considered heavy to-day when the sport
has become defiled by being very much of a gambler’s game—but the races
run were comparatively few. Section against section soon became
popular—the North against the South, Virginia against South Carolina,
Kentucky against Tennessee, and so on. The first, and in many regards
the most important of these contests, was a race at four mile heats over
the Union Course on Long Island in 1823, for a wager of $20,000 a side.
Sir Henry, the representative of the South, was by Sir Archy, dam by
Diomed and grandam by Bel Air. He was four years old, and carried 108
pounds. Eclipse (or American Eclipse) was by Duroc, his dam being
Miller’s Damsel by Messenger. He was nine years old and carried 126
pounds. So it will be seen that the contestants were both grandsons of
Diomed; indeed, Sir Henry was a grandson through both sire and dam. The
description of the race I take from that entertaining book, “Figures of
the Past,” by the late Josiah Quincy, with the consent of the
publishers, Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., of Boston. Here is what Mr.
Quincy wrote from his diary.
“ECLIPSE” AGAINST THE WORLD
“On the 27th of May, 1823, nearly fifty-seven years ago, there was great
excitement in the city of New York, for on that day the long-expected
race of ‘_Eclipse_ against the world’ was to be decided on the
race-course on Long Island. It was an amicable contest between the North
and the South. The New York votaries of the turf—a much more prominent
interest than at present—had offered to run _Eclipse_ against any horse
that could be produced, for a purse of $10,000; and the Southern
gentlemen had accepted the challenge. I could obtain no carriage to take
me to the course, as every conveyance in the city was engaged. Carriages
of every description formed an unbroken line from the ferry to the
ground. They were driven rapidly, and were in very close connection; so
much so that when one of them suddenly stopped, the poles of at least a
dozen carriages broke through the panels of those preceding them. The
drivers were, naturally, much enraged at this accident; but it seemed a
necessary consequence of the crush and hurry of the day, and nobody
could be blamed for it. The party that I was with, seeing there was no
chance of riding, was compelled to foot it. But after plodding some way,
we had the luck to fall in with a returning carriage, which we chartered
to take us to the course. On arriving, we found an assembly which was
simply overpowering; it was estimated that there were over one hundred
thousand persons upon the ground. The condition of the race were
four-mile heats, the best two in three; the course was a mile in length.
A college friend, the late David P. Hall, had procured for me a ticket
for the jockey-box, which commanded a view of the whole field. There was
great difficulty in clearing the track, until _Eclipse_ and _Sir Henry_
(the Southern horse), were brought to the stand. They were both in brave
spirits, throwing their heels high into the air; they soon effected that
scattering of the multitude which all other methods had failed to
accomplish. And now a great disappointment fell, like a wet blanket, on
more than half the spectators. It was suddenly announced that Purdy, the
jockey of _Eclipse_, had had a difficulty with his owner and refused to
ride. To substitute another in his place seemed almost like giving up
the contest; but the man was absolutely stubborn, and the time had come.
Another rider was provided, and the signal for the start was given. I
stood exactly opposite the judges’ seat, where the mastering excitement
found its climax. Off went the horses, every eye straining to follow
them. Four times they dashed by the judges’ stand, and every time _Sir
Henry_ was in the lead. The spirits of the Southerners seemed to leap up
beyond control, while the depression of the more phlegmatic North set in
like a physical chill. Directly before me sat John Randolph, the great
orator of Virginia. Apart from his intense sectional pride, he had
personal reasons to rejoice at the turn things were taking; for he had
bet heavily on the contest, and, it was said, proposed to sail for
Europe upon clearing enough to pay his expenses. Half an hour elapsed
for the horses to get their wind, and again they were brought to the
stand. But now a circumstance occurred which raised a deafening shout
from the partizans of the North. Purdy was to ride. How his scruples had
been overcome did not appear, but there he stood before us, and was
mounting _Eclipse_. Again, amidst breathless suspense, the word “Go!”
was heard, and again _Sir Henry_ took the inside track, and kept the
lead for more than two miles and a half. _Eclipse_ followed close on his
heels and, at short intervals, attempted to pass. At every spurt he made
to get ahead, Randolph’s high-pitched and penetrating voice was heard
each time shriller than before: ‘You can’t do it, Mr. Purdy! You can’t
do it, Mr. Purdy! You can’t do it, Mr. Purdy!’ But Mr. Purdy _did_ do
it. And as he took the lead what a roar of excitement went up! Tens of
thousands of dollars were in suspense, and, although I had not a cent
depending, I lost my breath, and felt as if a sword had passed through
me. Purdy kept the lead and came in a length or so ahead. The horses had
run eight miles, and the third heat was to decide the day. The
confidence on the part of the Southern gentlemen was abated. The manager
of _Sir Henry_ rode up to the front of our box and, calling to a
gentleman, said: ‘You must ride the next heat; there are hundreds of
thousands of Southern money depending on it. That boy don’t know how to
ride; he don’t keep his horse’s mouth open!’ The gentleman positively
refused, saying that he had not been in the saddle for months. The
manager begged him to come down, and John Randolph was summoned to use
his eloquent persuasions. When the horses were next brought to the
stand, behold the gentleman[3] appeared, booted and spurred, with a red
jacket on his back, and a jockey cap on his head. On the third heat
_Eclipse_ took the lead, and, by dint of constant whipping and spurring,
won by a length this closely contested race.
Footnote 3:
Arthur Taylor, a Virginian.
“There was never contest more exciting. Sectional feeling and heavy
pecuniary stakes were both involved. The length of time before it was
decided, the change of riders, the varying fortunes, all intensified the
interest. I have seen the great Derby races; but they finish almost as
soon as they begin, and were tame enough in comparison to this. Here for
nearly two hours there was no abatement in the strain. I was unconscious
of everything else, and found, when the race was concluded, that the sun
had actually blistered my cheek without my perceiving it. The victors
were, of course, exultant, and Purdy mounted on _Eclipse_, was led up to
the judges’ stand, the band playing, ‘See the Conquering Hero Comes.’
The Southerners bore their losses like gentlemen, and with a good grace.
It was suggested that the comparative chances of Adams and Jackson at
the approaching presidential election should be tested by a vote of that
gathering. ‘Ah,’ said Mr. Randolph, ‘if the question of the Presidency
could be settled by this assembly, there would be no opposition: Mr.
Purdy would go to the White House by acclamation.’”
[Illustration:
TEN BROECK (THOROUGHBRED)
Bred and owned by John Harper
]
The first heat was run in 7.37½, the second in 7.49, and the third in
8.24. Not very fast time considering what has been done since; and
contemptible according to the pretensions made by race-horse owners of
the present day, when “four-mile heats” are obsolete because they
interfere with the _business_ of the sport, and do not give the
bookmakers frequent enough chance to turn over the money of the public.
They base these pretensions on the performance of Lucretia Borgia, a
four-year-old, that ran a four-mile dash in 1897, in California, in
7.11, carrying eighty-five pounds. I have no doubt that the
Thoroughbreds of the present are much faster than those of 1823, but the
only way to compare them as to gameness and bottom is to have them
repeat and repeat again, and see whether or not this increased fleetness
is maintained. Probably it will not be done, for the one-time sport of
gentlemen is nowadays very much a mere gambler’s game.
The next great contest that old-time racing men spoke of with a respect
that was akin to awe was that between Gray Eagle, a Kentucky horse, by
Woodpecker out of Ophelia by Medley, and a Louisiana horse, Wagner, by
Sir Charles out of Maria West by Marion, at four-mile heats. This was at
Louisville in 1839. Wagner won the first two heats, Gray Eagle being
badly ridden, in 7.48 and 7.44. This race was run on a Monday. The
following Saturday the race was repeated. Gray Eagle won the first heat
in 7.51; Wagner took the second heat in 7.43. Gray Eagle broke down on
the second mile of the third race, and no time was kept. Though I was
not born for many years after these races were run, they were so
important in the history of the neighborhood where I lived and such
frequent topics of conversation that I sometimes have difficulty in
persuading myself that I was not present. In this I somewhat resemble
the gallant King of England, who believed that he was at the battle of
Waterloo.
Kentucky had become prominent before this time as a breeding place for
Thoroughbreds. The Kentuckians, mainly from Virginia in the early days,
were horse lovers by inheritance and habit, so they took with them to
their new homes very little but good stock. They were not impoverished
adventurers seeking new pioneer homes because they had failed in the
places of their birth. Not a bit of it. They were well born and of good
substance, and they went to this new country to found estates, for the
gentlemen of that period had not outgrown the Elizabethan land hunger
which took so many of the cavaliers to Virginia in an earlier century.
That they took good horses with them was a matter of course. And
arriving there they found that the native blue grass, which grew
plentifully even in the woods, was pasturage upon which horses
flourished mightily. The advertisements in the _Kentucky Gazette_ from
1787 to 1805 show that there were many Thoroughbred stallions standing
in the neighborhood of Lexington during those years, and not a few of
them were imported from England, the others coming from Virginia, the
noble pedigrees being printed at full length, with references nearly
always to the Newmarket Racing Calendar to substantiate the turf
performances of the sires advertised. So Kentucky was prepared with
stock of her own to take the place of the Virginia horse breeders when
the wasteful methods of agriculture, and the costly habits of
hospitality, had impoverished the mother State and made racing a sport
too expensive for the depleted purses of the gentlemen who stayed at
home. The Sir Archy blood was what the Kentuckians seem to have been
after, and soon there was more of it in Kentucky than in Virginia. Some
six of Sir Archy’s sons stood in the neighborhood of Lexington at one
time, and there were mares there fit to mate with Diomed’s grandsons.
The Whip family were also well represented, and among the other English
stallions taken thither may be mentioned Buzzard, Royalist, Dragon,
Speculator, Spread Eagle, Forrester, Alderman, Eagle, Pretender,
Touchstone and Archer. All a reader, who wishes to go deeper, needs to
do is to look at the stud book and see what pure and royal blood the
Kentuckians were working with to make that foundation stock which made
the State so famous, that at this time there are more Thoroughbreds
foaled there than in all the other States of the Union combined.
The breeders there were amateurs, however—men who bred for the love of
the horse and the love of sport—until Mr. Robert A. Alexander began his
operations at the famous Woodburn farm, where the breeding of
Thoroughbreds was more extensively carried on than in any other place in
the world. Mr. Alexander was a native Kentuckian, but educated at
Cambridge in England. He died at forty-eight, but he gave a great
impetus to stock breeding in Kentucky. When I first visited Woodburn,
the great Lexington was at the head of the stud. Later Mr. Alexander, as
well as his brother and successor, had many other great stallions and
brood mares, and colts and fillies from this farm for a score of years
captured the richest prizes of the American turf. The history of
Woodburn from 1850 to 1880 would almost amount to the same thing as a
history of Thoroughbred breeding in Kentucky for that period, though
there were many other smaller breeders, as there are now, when the James
B. Haggin Elmendorf farm has taken the premier place, and that, too, on
a very much larger scale even than Alexander’s Woodburn. As it was in
Alexander’s time, however, the smaller breeders, particularly Mr. Keene
and Mr. Belmont, are still fortunate in producing most admirable horses;
and it will be a bad thing for the Thoroughbred industry in Kentucky
when this is no longer so. The result of a monopoly of breeding horses
would be the same as the result produced by the trusts in oil, in steel
and in beef; the industry would be controlled by one man, or several in
combination, and the only competition that would remain would be between
the men who attend to the gambling end of the game. This is not likely
to happen, unless a corporation be formed to take over the chief
breeding farms, for in nine cases out of ten, when an owner dies, his
horses are sold and his collection dispersed so as to settle his estate.
After the Gray Eagle-Wagner race, the next one that was watched with
breathless interest by the whole country was the match at four-mile
heats between Fashion and Boston for $20,000 a side. This was run on
Long Island in 1842, and both heats were won by Fashion, the time being
7.32½ and 7.45. The time of this race, it will be seen, was an
improvement on that of the Eclipse-Sir Henry race, and also on the time
in the race between Gray Eagle and Wagner. It was called a match between
North and South, and the North was again the winner. Fashion was bred in
New Jersey, and was by Commodore Stockton’s imported stallion Trustee
out of the Virginia bred mare, Bonnets o’ Blue. Boston came from
Virginia, and was by Timoleon out of Robin Brown’s dam by Florizel.
Boston was a grandson of Sir Archy, and foaled in 1833. From the time of
his training as a three-year-old until he met Fashion, six years later,
he had campaigned all over the country and had meet with almost
universal success. He was considered the greatest horse of his day, and
there are many students of Thoroughbreds who to-day consider that he was
the greatest influence for good of any horse ever bred in this country,
greater even than his very wonderful son, Lexington.
The last great race—classic races, the turf writers call them—prior to
the Civil War, was at New Orleans, between two sons of Boston—Lexington
and Lecompte. The former was out of Alice Carneal by imported Sarpedon,
the latter out of Reel by imported Glencoe. This race was in 1854 and,
of course, at four-mile-heats, for the Great State Post Stakes. The city
of New Orleans, the place of the race, was packed with visitors from all
over the country. Lecompte won the two first heats, the time being 7.26
and 7.38¾. Mr. Richard Ten Broeck, the owner of Lexington, was so
dissatisfied that he tried to arrange a match with Lecompte. This came
to nothing, so he issued a challenge to run Lexington against Lecompte’s
time, 7.26, which was the record. This challenge was accepted and the
trial was made over the Metarie Course in New Orleans in April, 1855.
The most famous jockey of the time, Gil Patrick, was taken from Kentucky
to ride Mr. Ten Broeck’s horse, and again the sporting world of the
country crowded to New Orleans. Lexington beat the record, doing the
four miles in 7.19¾, and Mr. Ten Broeck was $20,000 richer for his
belief in his horse. There was at that time, and is now for that matter,
a feeling that a record made against time is not so satisfactory as one
made in an actual race, so the friends of Lecompte were not cast down by
Lexington’s performance. This trial against time took place on the 2d of
April. On the 24th of April was to be run the Jockey Club Purse of
$1000, and both Lecompte and Lexington were entered. Mr. Ten Broeck and
General Wells, the owner of Lecompte, bet $2500 against each other,
though in the general betting Lexington was the favorite at $100 to $80.
A writer of the day thus describes the race: