falo in 1872 the prizes amounted to $70,000. Twice at this jioint $20,000 lias been given for a single race, a sum nearly equal to an average Derby winning. 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 Kysdyk s Hambletoniau), out of an Abdallah mare. She began trotting in 1866, and left the turf in 1878, when twenty-one years old, and her winnings amounted to over $200,000.
In 1869 the organization now known as_ the National Trotting Association was formed, and it embraces in its membership all the principal tracks of the continent. All members of this association respect the penalties imposed by any other member, and exclusion from the privileges of one is exclusion from the privileges of all. This has had a great tendency to reform abuses on the trotting turf, enabling severe penalties to be inflicted for infractions of the rules, a very elaborate code of which has been published by the National Trotting Association, and is revised triennially.
In trotting races, it will be noted, the time test is supreme, differ ing from running races, in which time is of comparatively little con sequence. The animal which has the fastest record for 1 mile in harness is, until deposed, the king or queen of the trotting turf. Lady Sulfolk, with her record of 2 m. 26^ s., in 1843, held this honour until 1853, when Tacony trotted in 2 m. 25.^ s. under saddle ; Flora Temple wrested it from him in 1856 by trotting in 2 m. 24 s. in harness. This latter mare, in 1859, trotted a mile in 2 rn. 19
The market for American trotters is by no means confined to those intending 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 millionaires with a taste for driving to secure the best stable, and especially the fastest double team. In September 1877 Mr W. H. Vanderbilt drove his team, composed of Small Hopes and Lady Mac, a full mile over Fleetwood Park track, near New York city, in 2 m. 23 s. , which is 3^ seconds faster than the best record for a mile by a double team, the 2 m. 23 s. performance not being a technical record.
As an indication of the rapid advance that has been made in the general speed of the American trotter, a table recently published in the United States, giving the names of all horses that had trotted 1 mile in harness in 2 m. 25 s., or better, up to the close of 1879, includes 317 performers, and all these, except 25, were living when the table was published. This shows that a 2 m. 25 s. record was a very unusual occurrence only a horse generation since, while now an animal who cannot show that rate of speed is not considered a promising competitor in turf contests.
Every year a book is published containing summaries of all the trotting and pacing events of the preceding year. The record for 1875 showed 3304 events, amount of purses and stakes, $1,418,971; for 1876, 3484 races, $1,078,449; for 1877, 2802, $951,137; fur 1878, 2737, $817,629 ; and for 1879, 2246 races, amount of purses and stakes, $750,000.
We give, in conclusion, a table of the fastest trotting and pacing records, at all distances, ages, and ways of going, complete up to July 1880:—
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