142 THE ORANGE COUNTY 



most as clearly defined and as distinct as the Arabian, or 

 the thoroughbred racer, 



Thanks to the fact that we possess in this country a class 

 of farmers of wonderful intelligence, enterprise and public 

 spirit; men who have sense enough to seize upon a good idea 

 when they see it, and enterprise sufficient to put money and 

 time in any project offering reasonable hopes of being remun- 

 erative if not to themselves directly, at least to their fellow 

 citizens. 



"While in thoroughbreds, such men as Sandford, Ten 

 Broeck, and Lorillard, have borne the colors of America "full 

 high advanced," and made it patent to the whole world that 

 the United States breeders can bear away cups and purses 

 from the swiftest " flyers" of Great Britain, even on their 

 " native heath," our trotting-stock raisers have produced so 

 perfect a breed of horses that it is only prevented from beat- 

 ing the same style of horses in Britain, from the fact that 

 outside of America there are no competitors worth contesting 

 with. 



Again, of late years there have been quite a number of 

 persons, possessed of princely incomes, who have had a pas- 

 sionate liking for speedy trotters, and who have paid such 

 large sums for choice horses that it has proved a powerful 

 incentive to the breeding and training of better and better 

 still. 



But although our trotters far excel those of every other 

 country, it must not be supposed that we have a monopoly of 

 trotters. Russia has some very fine animals of this class. 

 While in Great Britain, trotting matches took place quite 

 often just before the beginning of the present century. A 

 mare, unnamed, had trotted in 1791 sixteen miles in 58m. 

 This, in common with most British matches, was for long 

 distances. Many long-distance goers came of a stock known 

 as Norfolk trotters but they never reached anything like the 

 speed of our modern trotters. The first public race for a 

 stake in this country was in 1818, for $1000. On this occa- 

 sion Boston Blue trotted a mile in three minutes. This was 

 thought so wonderful that he was taken to England where 

 he won over $500 in one race, doing twenty-eight miles in 

 one hour twenty-eight minutes and fifty seconds. He was a 

 winner against time in several matches. About three min- 

 utes was his average time. His pedigree was unknown. His 

 color was gray, and he was sixteen hands high. 



Messenger's colts began to excite attention in 1821. They 

 showed power and swiftness, 



