xxvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



ther soon moved to the old Centreville House, near the Centreville 

 Course ; and Hiram went with him. On Christmas Day, 1836, and 

 therefore before he had quite arrived at his twentieth birthday, 

 Hiram Woodruff was married to Sarah Ann Howe, at Jamaica. 

 He took his young bride home with him to his father's ; and now, 

 over his grave, after his more than thirty years of wedded life have 

 ended, his friends can truly say that never was man more blessed 

 in an excellent wife than he, in her he loved so well, and has left 

 to mourn behind him. 



It was not long after his marriage when Dutchman came into 

 his hands. The first race he won with him was against Lady Suf- 

 folk and Rattler. The latter was trained and ridden by William 

 Whelan, brother of Peter of famous memory, and himself now sur- 

 vivor of his old and valued friend Hiram. Out of this race grew 

 that at three-mile heats between Dutchman and Rattler, which 

 was won by the former in four heats. The two friends latterly, in 

 their reviews of what happened thirty years ago, used to ride this 

 race again. Hiram would show how it was won; and Wnelan 

 argue that it was lost because Rattler was a poor feeder, and so, at 

 that time, not quite equal to Dutchman in lasting qualities. These 

 young riders and trainers were now " the coming men." George 

 Woodruff and Peter Whelan were to have successors as great, if 

 not greater, than themselves. The seas soon separated the young 

 men. Whelan went to England with Rattler, where he beat every 

 thing with ridiculous ease, and issued a challenge to the world. 

 Thereupon an English merchant of New York sounded Hiram 

 Woodruff, to ascertain whether he would go to England to train 

 and ride Dutchman if the horse were purchased. Hiram was not 

 very anxious to leave his home and his young wife ; but his confi- 

 dence was great in Dutchman, and he consented to go. But the 

 bargain for the horse went off. His owners were offered two 

 thousand seven hundred dollars and a black mare, then in 

 Hiram's hands, for him. They wanted three thousand dollars 

 and the mare. Whelan thinks that Rattler might have de- 

 feated Dutchman in England, as the former had got to feeding 

 strong there. But Hiram has often told us that the probabilities 

 were all the other way, as Dutchman's great speed was only just 

 coming to him when he beat Rattler in the race of four heats. In 

 Hiram's hands, Dutchman performed three great feats. The first 

 was the defeat of Rattler in the great race of four three^inile heats. 



