THE AMERICAN RACE HORSE. 97 



mare." No doubt there was a great deal of sharp practice, to 

 say nothing of cheating and lying, about horse matters in Colonial 

 times, but those little venialities were only the blossoms indicat- 

 ing the mature fruits of deceptions and frauds that were to follow 

 when pedigrees would be considered an element of value in the 

 running horse, and when every man would have the power, in 

 fact, to make and print his pedigrees to suit himself. This 

 brings us to a very brief consideration of what has been done in 

 the direction of correcting the frauds of the past and preventing 

 them in the future. 



The period of fable and of falsehood in the genealogy of the 

 American race horse seems to have commenced not long after the 

 first importations of English race horses. In the first generations 

 from the imported English horse and the native mare, it was rather 

 difficult for a man to fix up a pedigree for his half-bred colt that 

 would show him to be full bred, but after forty, fifty, or sixty 

 years had elapsed the events became misty, and then every man 

 exercised the right to make his own pedigrees to suit his own 

 fancy. This seems to have been the condition of things for 

 many years, and while there were a few honest men who would 

 stick to the truth, the great majority either made their pedigrees 

 to suit themselves or employed some "expert" to make them for 

 them. The confusion which ensued was most perplexing, and 

 the slipshod manner in which editors and writers on the horse 

 did their work was most discouraging. "Whatever was found in 

 print on a crossroads blacksmith shop door was taken as authen- 

 tic, because it was in print. 



In 1829 Mr. John S. Skinner, of Baltimore, Maryland, com- 

 menced the publication of a monthly magazine, entitled "Tlie 

 American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine," and as it really 

 "filled along-felt want," it received a very encouraging support. 

 As its name indicated its field, it at once became the authority on 

 sporting events and the receptacle of a great amount of valuable 

 correspondence on the horses of the day, as well as the earlier race 

 horses. Mr. Skinner was industrious in collecting material for 

 his magazine, but unfortunately lie published whatever was sent 

 to him relating to the horse, and just as it was sent. If a com- 

 munication was well written, no difference how many errors of 

 fact it might contain, it never seemed to occur to Mr. Skinner to 

 use his blue pencil. Pedigrees were sent in, amounting to many 

 thousands, during his ownership, with fictitious and untruthful 



