THE SADDLE BREEDS OF HORSES 113 



Diomed, racing in the colors of Mr. Pierre Lorillard. This 

 horse, the same season, won the St. Leger, a most notable 

 feat in view of the fact that both Derby and St. Leger 

 have been won by the same horse but nine times in over 

 a century of racing. 



128. History in America. It is natural that this 

 country should have been the first, after England, to take 

 up the Thoroughbred and systematically breed and race 

 him. It was not long after the colonization of the southern 

 provinces by the English gentry that there was established 

 an American turf with its Thoroughbred studs. 



In connection with the introduction of the Thorough- 

 bred into America, some mention of the so-called native 

 horses should be made. While there is abundant evidence 

 in the w r ay of fossil remains of the presence and possibly 

 the evolution of a prehistoric horse on the American conti- 

 nent, still there were no horses of any description found 

 here by Columbus. He it was who on his second expedi- 

 tion made the first importation of which we have any 

 record. These horses are thought by some to have 

 perished soon after their arrival, while other authorities 

 assert that they eventually gained the mainland and con- 

 stitute a part of our foundation stock. Cortez, in his 

 conquest of Mexico in 1519, is credited with having landed 

 the first horses on American soil. In 1527, Cabeza de 

 Vaca brought horses to St. Augustine, Florida, which were 

 afterward liberated. Again, horses constituted a part of 

 the equipment of De Soto's expedition in 1541, on which 

 he discovered the Mississippi. Thus far these were all 

 Spanish horses of oriental extraction the same original 

 source from which the Thoroughbred sprang. In 1604, 

 the French took horses into Nova Scotia, and four years 

 later introduced them into Canada. Then followed the 



