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In 1748 the New Jersey Legislature enacted a law to restrain "all 

 running, pacing, and trotting races." Although there is not, as far as 

 1 can learn, specific mention in colonial history of trotting races, the 

 fact that the New Jersey authorities found their suppression advisable 

 leaves no doubt that racing at the trotting gait was very prevalent at 

 that early day. 



The revival in trotting did not begin to gather force until about 

 1830, and since then improvement in speed has been continual and 

 rapid. It was not until 1844 that a trotter went a mile in harness in 

 " 2.30 or better," Lady Suffolk achieving that honor, her record being 

 2.262. Then, as now, the pacing gait was faster than the trotting gait, 

 for Drover had paced a mile in 2.28 in 1839 ; and in the same year 

 that Lady Suffolk had trotted in 2.26 J Unknown paced to wagon a 

 mile in 2.23. The next great epochal year in trotting history was 

 1869, when the little mare, Flora Temple, astonished the world by 

 beating 2.20, doing the mile in 2.19t ; and it was not until 1884 that 

 the 2.10 mark was passed by Maud S., long the queen of the trotting 

 turf. Maud S., though she has been in practical retirement in Mr. 

 Robert Bonner's stables for several seasons, and no longer the holder 

 of the championship trotting record, is still a central figure among star 

 trotters of to-day — and she is every inch a queen. Mand S. was bred 

 at Woodburn Farm, Kentucky, and was foaled there in 1874. Her 

 sire is Harold, son of Rysdyk's Hambletonian, and her dam is Miss 

 Russell (also the dam of the famous Nutwood, 2.18 f) by Pilot, Jr., the 

 grand-dam being the thoroughbred Sally Russell, by Boston. When 

 young the filly was sold from Woodburn for $250 ; at three years old. 

 Captain Stone, of Cincinnati, paid $350, and named her Maud S. ; in 

 her four-year-old form she trotted a trial faster than any four-year-old 

 had trotted to that date ; and on the strength of this trial was sold to 

 the late William H. Vanderbilt for $21,000. 



The first public appearance of Maud S. was at Chicago, July 6th, 

 1880, in a race which she easily won in a comparatively slow time ; 

 but her second race, also at Chicago, July 24th, 1880, made her the 

 sensation of the hour, she beating the great mare Trinket, and trotting 

 the third heat in 2.18] — that remaining on record for many years as 

 the fastest heat ever trotted in a race. Victory after victory, with 

 never a defeat, was added to her list, until there was nothing of flesh 

 and blood to race against, and she entered the lists against the inexor- 



