1883.] THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 233 



came in to supply its place. I am inclined to believe tliat the 

 desire to see a horse go at its best speed is an instinct with our 

 race, and means will be found to indulge it, even under the most 

 hostile laws. 



Frank Forester says that trotting for mo'ney began in 1818, and 

 grew out of a jockey-club dinner at which Maj. Jones, of Long 

 Island bet Col. Bond, of Maryland, $1,000 that "no horse could 

 be produced that could trot a mile in three minutes." There was . 

 much side betting, and the odds against it were immense. But 

 Boston Blue won handsomely, and Maj. Jones lost his thousand 

 dollars. This trot made much talk at the time, and an account 

 says that this wonderful horse, which could trot a mile in three 

 minutes, was taken to England to exhibit there. This was a trot 

 against time, but time had been taken earlier. I have alluded to 

 the trot of Yankey in 1806, and the London Sporting Magazine 

 of October, 1810, is cited as having a letter that tells of a trot in 

 August of that year, in which "a chestnut horse from Boston" 

 trotted to a sulky one mile in 2.481 for $600. Doubtless there 

 was occasional trotting, just as there were other queer races, just 

 as we hear of a hog-race, and a goose-race ; but trotting as a sport 

 may be said to have fairly begun between 1815 and 1830, and they 

 were frequent enough before 1820 to be specially mentioned in 

 prohibitory statutes. Under the repression of hostile laws against 

 races other means were taken to gratify the instinctive pleasure of 

 seeing horses get over the ground swiftly. A race, as then under- 

 stood, was a contest between two or more horses, to see which 

 could run the fastest, as it is still in most countries. Men did not 

 dream of a race being run by one of anything, be it in a horse-race, 

 boat-race, or foot-race. Moreover, in those times horse-racing 

 meant horses running. So when horse-racing was a crime punisha- 

 ble by fine and imprisonment, the good, law-abiding citizen 

 who owned a good trotter and who instinctively yearned for the 

 pleasure of seeing a spirited horse in action, would not run him, 

 nor race him, he merely " trained " him, and had an occasional 

 ''trial of speed," in which he could hold his watch and see how 

 long it took his horse to trot a given distance, and the "timing" 

 of trots became common long before the system of records was 

 established. 



New York had passed " An Act to prevent Horse-racing," 

 March 19, 1802, which was amended March 30, 1821, by which it 



