CHAPTER IL 

 Our Early Racing. 



From the very arrival of the first thorougbred in this 

 country racing became popular. It was the chief recreation 

 of the leisure class, and, though that class was exceedingly 

 small in number, it was thoroughly enthusiastic, and, perhaps 

 naturally, because of its smallness, contests took on the char- 

 acter of quasi-sectional rivalries. It was the North against 

 the South, or Virginia against Maryland, or New York against 

 South Carolina, and so on, for, as I have said, men who had 

 the wealth and the leisure to indulge in this most fascinat- 

 ing of sports were few and far between in those days when 

 our country was in that transition stage from a colony to a 

 nation. 



Up until within approximately a dozen years of the 

 War of Independence there was no regularly constituted 

 race track worthy even of those days. In 1763, for example, 

 we find the celebrated horse Selim meeting and beating Dr. 

 Hamilton's imported horse Dove and others at four miles, 

 two miles out on the main road between Annapolis and Bal- 

 timore and return. Maryland always was a splendid racing 

 colony, and letters in private collections tell of the great 

 crowds that had gathered for the contest, traveling by horse- 

 back in some instances a week's journey to be present at the 

 race. 



In 1764 Selim again won a purse at Philadelphia, and 

 about a year later beat True Britton over a regularly organ- 

 ized course at four miles and repeat in a match. In the 

 October of 1767 he won a purse of 100 guineas at the same 

 place, distancing three others. His superiority was so un- 

 challenged that it was not an uncommon thing to find him 

 barred. It was not until 1768 that he met his first defeat, 

 his conqueror being the imported horse Figure. 



In this connection it is pertinent to call attention to the 

 fact that the worthy, time-honored course at Charleston, S. C., 

 was the oldest well-organized course in the United States. 

 It was not inaugurated until February 15, 1792, or nearly a 

 quarter of a century after some had their existence in Penn- 



