204 H E S E [HORSE-RACING. number over 300, and the annual number of foals is estimated at about 1400. There are no official records of the produce. One of the peculiar features of racing in America is that all events are officially timed, and the time is recorded by the clerks of the jockey clubs upon the books of the club. By it the value of differ ent performances by the same or different horses is generally esti mated. Of course other elements are considered, such as the weight carried, the age of the horses, the weather, the condition of the track, &c. If a horse of the same age and weight, and over courses of similar conditions, can run a mile a second quicker than another horse, he is regarded as faster at the distance than his rival. The artificial tracks of the country make time a reasonably accurate test when weighed in connexion with other circumstances. Each club has its official timer, who gives the time taken to the clerk as soon as the race is over. The following is the fastest time made at all distances in the United States, down to July 1, 1880: Half mile. Two year olds, 47f s ; older horses have no record at this distance. Three quarters of a mile. Two year olds, 1m. 15s.; three year olds, 1 in. lo^TS.; four year olds and upwards, 1 in. 15 s. One mile. Two year oMs, 1m. 43s. ; three year olds, 1 m, 41f 8. ; f our years and upwards, 1 m. 39f s. One mile and a furlong. Three year olds, 1 in. 54 s. ; four years and upwaids, 1 m. 55j s. One mile and a quarter. Three year olds. 2m. 8Js. ; four years and upwards, 2 m. 83 s. One mile and a half. Three year olds, 2 m. 37 s. ; four year olds and upwards, 2 m. 34 J s. One mile and five furlongs. Three year olds, 2 m. 49 s. ; four years and up wards, 2 in. 53 s. One mile ;md three quarters. Three year olds, 3 m. 5 s. ; four years and up wards, 3m. 4s. Two miles. Three year olds, 3 m. 30J s. ; four years and upwards, 3 m. 27 s. Two miles and a furlong. Three year olds, 3 m. 50 s ; four years and upwards, 3 m. 45J s Two milt-s and a quarter. Three year olds, 4 m. 2 s. ; four years and upwards, 3 m. 56J s. Two miles and a half. Three year olds, 4 m. 31| s. ; four years and upwards, 4 m. 27$ s. Two miles and three quarters. Four year olds and upwards, 4 m. 58 s. Three miles. Three year olds, 5 in. 28 s. ; four years and upwards, 5 m. 26J s. Four miles. Three year olds. 7 m. 31| s. four years and upwards, 7 in. 15J s. (J. R. H.) ^.meri- Trotting. The development of speed in the trotting-horse
- an trot- through systematic breeding and training is one of the great
in?. industries of the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada, and in no other portion of the world is it pursued to any great extent, except in Russia. This interest, which has attained vast proportions, is entirely the growth of a century, dating back to the* importation to Philadelphia from England, in 1788, of the thorough bred horse Messenger. This was a grey stallion, by Mambrino, 1st dam by Turf, 2d dam by Regulu.s, 3d dam by Starling, 4th dam by Fox, 5th dam Gipsey, by Bay Bolton, 6th dam by duke of Newcastle s Turk, 7th dam by Byerly Turk, 8th dam by Taffolet Barb, 9th dam by Place s White Turk. He was eight years old when imported to the United States. He was at the stud for twenty years, in the vicinity of Philadelphia and New York, serving a number of thoroughbred mares, hut a far greater number of cold-blooded mares, and in the progeny of the latter the trotting in stinct was almost invariably developed, while his thoroughbred sons, who became scattered over the country, were also noted for transmit ting the trotting instinct. That Messenger was the fountain-head of American trotting is shown by the fact that almost every trotter of merit in that country, 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 its esteemed value. It was years after the death of Messenger, however, before these facts be came apparent ; tne taste of the country in racing matters was con fined to running contests, and systematic trotting breeding is of much later growth. The first public: trotting race of which there is any account in the United States was in 1818, when the grey 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 breeding the thoroughbred, as iu the latter case pure blood lines of long recognized value could be relied upon, while in the former the best results were constantly being obtained from most unexpected sources. At the present day, the leading families are the hambletonian, of which the modern head was Itysdyk s Hambletonian, a bayhor.se foaled in 1849, got by Abdallah (traced to imp. Messenger on the side of both sire and dam) out of the Charles Kent mare, by imp. (i.e., imported) Bellfounder, with two crosses to imp. Messenger on her dam s side ; the Mambrinos, whose modern 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 Ar.tbian horse, dam Pearl, by First Consul; the Clays, springing from Henry Clay, a grandson of Young Bashaw through Andrew Jackson, and pro perly a branch of the Bashaw Family, but arbitrary usage, of which there is much in American trotting lineage, makes them distinct ; the Stars, springing from Stockholm s American Star, by Duroc, son of imp. Diomed ; the Morgans, whose founder was .Justin Mor gan, foaled 1793, by a horse called True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, who was probably thoroughbred ; the Black Hawks, a branch of the Morgan family ; the Blue Bulls, descended from Doyle s Blue Bull, foaled 1 855, a pacer, sired by a pacer of the same name, dam by Blacknose, son of Medoc ; the Canadians, whose best represen tatives were St Lawrence and pacing Pilot, horses of unknown pedi gree ; the Gold Dusts, another branch of the Morgan family ; and the Royal Georges, springing from Tippoo, a horse who was pro bably 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 mentioned. It follows that the breeder has an extensive field before him, and the questions of in-breeding or out-crossing, of the value of thoroughbred crosses, pacing crosses, &c., have to be considered, and are abundantly dis cussed. There are many large and successful establishments for breeding trotters at the present day. All of them are extensive in acreage, while on several a hundred or more brood mares are kept, besides a number of stallions. As a rule, the stallions do service outside the farms of their owner, but in some cases they are re served strictly for home use. Very large prices are frequently paid for youngsters, 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 $13,000; and in 1878 $21,000 was paid for the four year old filly Maud S., ai ter she had trotted a mile in public in 2 m. 1/4 s. 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 Earns, and long prices for many others ; StJulien, the trotter with the fastest record at the close of 1879, was held at $50,000, while Rysdyk s Hambletonian, Messenger, Duroc, and Volunteer were valued, in their prime, at $100,000 each. 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 distances, 3 miles being rather the favourite. The best of the old time trotters were Edwin Forrest, who trotted a mile in 2 m. 31 s. in 1834; Dutchman, whose 3 miles under saddle, in 7 m. 324 s -> is still the best on record ; llipton ; Lady Suffolk, who trotted a mile in 2 m. 26| s. in 1843, and headed the list of performers; Mac, Tacony, &c. Since 1850, however, the taste of the people has settled upon the style of race called "mile heats, best three out of five, in harness," as the favourite, and nine out of ten contests arc of this character. By " in harness " 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 his flanks. These sulkies often weigh less than 40 lb. The driver is required to weigh, with the blanket on which he sits, 150 Tb, while lor saddle races the regulation weight is 145 Tb, or 10 st. 5 ft. Each heat of a mile is a separate race ; 20 minutes is allowed 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 running, the judges set him back at the finish twice the distance he has gained, in their estima tion, by running; and for repeated "breaks" they can declare him distanced. The first-class tracks are of 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 is thus entered as his " record. " This is one of the distinctive features of trotting in America. The purses that are given by the association owning tracks are generally divided into classes, such as for horses that have never beaten 3 minutes, that have never beaten 2 m. 40 s. , 2 m. 20s. , &c. Hence itis 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 monies, and the second money is usually half as large as the first, drivers frequently "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 racing. It is in the power of the judges, when they think that a horse is not being driven to win, to suostitute another driver, and this is often done. Prior to 1866 purses for trotters were small ; match races were more in vogue, and the trotting turf was in bad odour. In that year an association was formed at Buffalo, N.Y., which undertook to remedy the evil, and inaugurated its efforts by offering the then unprecedented sum of $10,500 for a trotting meeting of four days duration. The experiment was successful ; other cities followed the
example of Buffalo; larger and larger purses were given; and at Buf-
