292 The Trotting and tbe Pacing Horse 



C. J. Hamlin, August 14-17, 1866. The pre- 

 miums amounted to #10,500, and the meeting at- 

 tracted the best horses in the country and proved 

 a great success. The "mammoth purse," as it 

 was styled, $5750, for free-for-all trotters, was 

 won by Dexter from George M. Patchen Jr. and 

 Rolla Golddust, and the fastest time was 2.25. 

 The success stimulated to bolder endeavor in 

 1867, and the fame of Buffalo gradually increased 

 as the trotting centre of America. The maxi- 

 mum premium list was #70,000. Hampden Park, 

 at Springfield, Massachusetts, was built in 1857, 

 but owing to the Civil War it did not burst into 

 full flower until 1868. The first annual spring 

 meeting of the Cleveland Club, under the aus- 

 pices of the Northern Ohio Fair Association, 

 was held June 20-23, 1871, and John Tod, a son 

 of the war governor, was president, and George 

 W. Howe was secretary. In 1873 the Quad- 

 rilateral Trotting Combination was formed 

 Cleveland, July 29 to August i ; Buffalo, August 

 5 to 8; Utica, August 12 to 14, and Springfield, 

 August 19 to 22. The premiums for the four 

 meetings amounted to #169,300, and enthusiasm 

 increased as the horses swept down the line. In 

 1874 Charter Oak Park at Hartford was opened, 



