306 The Trotting and the Pacing Horse 



" Davy Crockett. 



" Pat Cleburne [by Benton's gray Diomed]." 

 I have before me the American Turf Register 

 of 1870, and only 59 pacing races for the entire 

 country for the year 1869 are recorded in it In 

 the majority of these races only two horses faced 

 the starter, and the time made was wretchedly 

 slow. There were only four pacing races in the 

 great state of New York, but one in Tennessee, 

 and none in Kentucky. This shows what a feeble 

 factor the pacing horse was in harness at that 

 comparatively recent period. The chestnut mare 

 Pocahontas by Iron's Cadmus by American 

 Eclipse had established a national reputation by 

 pacing, June 21, 1855, at Union Course, Long 

 Island, to a wagon record of 2.17!-; but ^ a ^ 

 performance weighed so lightly on the mind of 

 breeders and trainers that no determined at- 

 tempts at imitation were made. The pacer was 

 really under ban for harness purposes ; and many 

 horses that would have paced fast if left to their 

 own inclinations were converted into trotters by 

 the application of toe weights. When a horse 

 transmits the pacing form he transmits the -pac- 

 ing gait or a tendency to pace. The horse paces 

 naturally when the body is not long enough to 



