R A C E A L N G 145 



his grandfather's farm and began training local 

 horses. At twenty he opened a public stable at 

 Rochester. The following year he won his first race 

 at Canandaigua with Drummer Boy. At this time he 

 was also training the Hunger Horse. When Van Ness 

 drove him in 2:23 at Buffalo he became the talk of 

 the country. 



The showing of this horse prompted Frank Van 

 Ness in 1872 to pay $750 for St. James by Gooding's 

 Champion. This gelding had speed but was mixed 

 gaited. Van Ness balanced St. James as a trotter. 

 He won five races with him that season. 



In 1873, the year that the Grand Circuit was 

 started, St. James won a $10,000 purse at Buffalo 

 in 2:231/2- He also won a $6,000 event at Utica in 

 2:26 and two races worth $9,000 at Springfield. 



This showing was followed by a trip to California 

 where St. James won three races at San Francisco, 

 one of them being against Sam Purdy. In the spring 

 of 1874 St. James won a race to wagon at Sacra- 

 mento. He added five more to the score on the 

 eastern tracks before Lucky Baldwin purchased St. 

 James for $13,000 and turned him over to his son- 

 in-law Budd Doble. 



While owned by Frank Van Ness, St. James won 

 twenty-two races. With the sale price included this 

 gelding netted his young owner over $30,000 aside 

 from what he won in the betting ring. 



After looking around for a year Frank purchased 

 the gray gelding Albemarle. He won three races with 

 him, gave him a record of 2:20, and sold him to 



