52 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



took the second heat in 7.43. Gray Eagle broke 

 down on the second mile of the third race, and no 

 time was kept. Though I was not born for many 

 years after these races were run, they were so im- 

 portant in the history of the neighborhood where 

 I lived and such frequent topics of conversation 

 that I sometimes have difficulty in persuading 

 myself that I was not present. In this I some- 

 what resemble the gallant King of England, who 

 believed that he was at the battle of Waterloo. 



Kentucky had become prominent before this 

 time as a breeding place for Thoroughbreds. The 

 Kentuckians, mainly from Virginia in the early 

 days, were horse lovers by inheritance and habit, 

 so they took with them to their new homes very 

 little but good stock. They were not impoverished 

 adventurers seeking new pioneer homes because 

 they had failed in the places of their birth. Not a 

 bit of it. They were well born and of good sub- 

 stance, and they went to this new country to 

 found estates, for the gentlemen of that period 

 had not outgrown the Elizabethan land hunger 

 which took so many of the cavaliers to Virginia 

 in an earlier century. That they took good horses 



