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plished through the science of breeding and the art of training applied 

 by human intelligence with the purpose of improving the horse by 

 increasing his natural speed and endurance. 



From the earliest ages of the human race, horse-racing has held its 

 place as the noblest sport. Just when horse-racing began we cannot 

 say, but history records that chariot-races were a feature of the funeral 

 games of Patroclus, in the twenty -third Olympiad, which would be 

 about 684 B. C. The Olympic games, of which racing was a part, 

 then bore a semi-religious character, for the belief that the dead would 

 be appeased or gratified by the things that pleased them in life was a 

 heritage of the early Greeks and Romans, and these games, including 

 chariot-racing, archery, wrestling, and boxing, were generally held near 

 some shrine or consecrated spot. The hippodrome in which these 

 Grecian races were held was " a race-course 1,200 feet long and 400 

 feet wide, laid out on the left side of the hill of Kronos, and the whole 

 circuit had to be traversed twelve times." To the chariots were har- 

 nessed two, three or four horses, and that large " fields " started is 

 shown by the early Grecian poet Pindar, who praises a distinguished 

 athlete of Gyrene, who brought his chariot through uninjured in a race 

 where no less than forty chariots started. None but the rich and 

 powerful could aspire to this kingly sport, and " even kings and tyrants 

 eagerly contested for the palm." Among men enrolled on the list of 

 victors were Cyclon, of Athens, the Spartan king Pausanias, and 

 Archelaus, of Macedon. 



According to Greek history, racing on horse-back dates from the 

 thirty-third Olympiad, which would be forty years later than the 

 chariot-racing first mentioned in connection with the funeral games of 

 Patroclus. In the Homeric times the prizes awarded winners of 

 horse-races at the Olympic games were said to be of great richness, but 

 later the only prize given the victor was a garland of wild olives, cut 

 with a golden sickle from a sacred tree, whose branches Avere, according 

 to Pindar, "a shelter common to all men, and a crown of noble deeds." 

 But the greatest honor and prestige fell to a victor in these ancient 

 races. His name, lineage, and country were proclaimed by a herald, 

 the garland of wild olives was taken from a table of ivory and gold, 

 and placed on his brow, and as he marched in the sacred revel to the 

 temple of Zeus his path was showered with costly gifts, and his name 

 was enrolled in the Greek calendar. If an Athenian, he received 



