130 THE TROTTING-IIORSE OF AMERICA. 



English thoroughbred of that name, who was the son of 

 Pot-8-os, and the sire of Whalebone, Whisker, Woful, 

 Web, Wire, etc. Of his pedigree nothing was known. 

 He looked like a thoroughbred horse, and was one of the 

 most splendid geldings I ever saw. At the time of the 

 race, Whalebone belonged to Mr. Coddle of Philadelphia, 

 and George Spicer rode him. 



Topgallant was trained and ridden by my uncle, George 

 Woodruff, who was then a young man. He was then five 

 feet ten inches high, and one hundred and forty-seven 

 pounds in weight. A finer rider of a trotting-horse was 

 never seen. He was straight, spare, and sinewy, very 

 strong and lasting. He is still the same upright, spare, 

 sinewy man, and as spry as ever with a horse, though more 

 than sixty years of age. Topgallant won the race after a 

 desperate struggle. Whalebone got one heat, and there 

 was a dead one. The time of the heats in this famous 

 race was as follows: llm. 16s., llm. 06s., llm. 17s., 

 and 12m. 15s. Eorty-fi ve minutes and forty-four seconds 

 for the sixteen miles, which is just 2m. 52 1-Ss. to the mile ! 

 Now, was there a horse before, or has there been one since, 

 that in his twenty-second year could beat it ? I might go 

 further, and ask whether there w r ill ever be one that can do 

 it again. 



The rate of this race was better than twenty miles an 

 hour ; and it may well be thought that the old horse of 

 twenty-two years old, who could trot four four-milo heats at 

 a gait that would have made twenty miles in less than 

 fifty-eight minutes, could have gone the twenty in an hour. 

 He could have gone along at an even rate, had it been 

 twenty miles against time, and would not have been pushed 

 along so as to make four miles in 11. 06s., which was at the 

 rate of 2m. 46^s. to the mile. In long performances 

 against time, it is the level, even rate that wins. If Capt. 

 McGowan had been made to go his fifth, sixth, 

 seventh, and eighth miles in llm. 06s. instead of llm. 



