RACEALONG 191 



PETER THE GREAT AND BINGEN 



Boston has been a center of light harness racing 

 since 1818, the year Boston Blue was shipped on a 

 sailing vessel to New York, where he trotted the 

 first recorded mile in three minutes. When the 

 Morgan trotters began to appear on the turf, the 

 best of them were seen at Riverside, Beacon and 

 Mystic Parks. Vermont contributed Ethan Allen and 

 a few of Daniel Lambert's get, while New Hampshire 

 sent the champion stallion Fearnaught. Maine kept 

 the market supplied with the get of General Knox, 

 which included Camors and Lady Maud, as well as 

 the best of the Drew, Eaton, Brandywine, and 

 Morrill stock. They were in turn followed by Young 

 Rolfe, which dropped dead in a race at Mystic Park, 

 and Nelson. 



While these performers were passing, H. S. 

 Russell took an active interest in racing and ap- 

 peared as the owner of Fearnaught, and Smuggler, 

 the first stallion to trot in 2 : 151/4 and one of the few 

 trotters that defeated Goldsmith Maid after she 

 reached championship form. When Colonel Russell 

 retired, his brother-in-law J. Malcolm Forbes, who 

 was for years very active in yachting and identified 

 with several winners of the America's Cup, estab- 

 lished a farm at Ponkapog and decided to race and 

 breed trotters. One of his first selections was Arion, 

 for which he paid $125,000 after h^ startled the 

 world by trotting in 2:10% as a two-year-old to a 

 high wheel sulky. He was followed by Bingen, for 



