LADY SUFFOLK. 



71 



horse of mUrd blood may be a great trotter at a 

 long distance, because his speed at his best is 

 greatly behind that of the best speed ou the 

 tarf ; but it would, according to all principles of 

 reasoning, be unreasonable to expect great ex- 

 cellence even as a trotter, in horses altogether 

 free from the blood which gives foot and wind 

 to the Eastern courser. Though we may not be 

 able to trace it, and though in solitai-y cases a 

 horse without it,may possess great speed and last- 

 inguess in the trot, from excellent accidental 

 conformation, -we repeat that the possession of 

 the two wan-ants the presumption of the third, 

 however obscure the traces, or remote the ori- 

 gin ; — this is our theory ! But the action to be 

 cultivated in the racer and the trotter is of itself 

 sufficient to explain why a racer should not suc- 

 ceed at once ou the turf and on the trotting- 

 course. All reflecting and observant men will 

 admit that "as there is no royal way to mathe- 

 matics," so there is but one way for a horse to 

 excel in his business ; and with rare exceptions 

 there is but one in which any individual horse 

 can excel. Whatever that business may be. to 

 be perfect in it he should be educated and kept 

 to it — and to it only. A trotting horse should 

 do nothing but trot. ^ 



The weight carried on the Northern Courses, 

 where a majority of our trotting takes place, is 

 145 pounds, witliout any distinction for age or 

 sex ; and the same weight has to be carried by 

 the driver, exclusive of the weights of his sulkey 

 or match cart, as by the same jockey in the 

 saddle. These match-carts are of the neatest 

 coiiBti-uction, and weigh generallj- nearly ninety 

 pounds, though they often weigh twenty pounds 

 less, and there are one or t^vo which weigh but 

 fifty-three pounds ! But the mere weight to be 

 carried or drawn by a trotter, is much less re- 

 garded by the sportsman than in the case of the 

 race horse. On the Hunting Park Course, near 

 Philadelphia, the weight was formerly 147 

 pounds in the saddle, and in harness catch- 

 weights, but they have now adopted the New- 

 York scale. But in far the greater number of 

 the ca.ses below, unless the weight be expressly 

 named, it may be presumed to be from 14.') to 

 155 pounds. Hiram Woodruff weighs without 

 his .saddle KiO pounds. On the Beacon and 

 Centreville Courses, pacers are allowed five 

 pounds, and wagons, in distinction from sulkeys 

 or match-carts, must weigh 250 pounds. 



As a matter of course from the dilTerence of 

 weights carried along by him, the trotter gen- 

 erally makes better time under the saddle than 

 in harness, though there are some exceptions to 

 this rule. Another consideration has great in- 

 fluence upon this difference in time. Under the 

 saddle, the jockey can hug the pole of our oval- 

 shaped courses more closely than in harness, 

 and thus he actually goes over less ground. 

 (179) 



And for an obvious reason the speed of a horse 

 in going " round the turns" is more retarded in 

 a sulkey than under the saddle. As before 

 stated, no allowance of weights is made for age, 

 and in consequence no note is taken of the age 

 of trotters in ofBcial reports of their perform- 

 ances. 



We have already intimated that in introducing 

 Lady Suffolk to our readers, accompanied with 

 this dis-sertation on Trotting Horses ; our aim 

 is, not to encourage a fondness for equestrian 

 exhibitions of this character, merely as an 

 amusement ; but to indicate how excellence so 

 desii'able in this property of the horse, is only to 

 be secured and cultivated, by attention to blood 

 and good management of the breeding stud. 

 With that object in view, and on the salutary 

 principle of mixing the agreeable with the 

 useful, it is deemed not amiss to entertain the 

 reader, [-who may not have seen, or who may 

 have forgotten them, with a few 



MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES OF EXTRAORDINA- 

 RY PERFORMANCES OF AMERICAN TROTTERS. 



Topgallant, by Hambletonian, trotted in har- 

 ness 12 miles in 38 minutes. — See Turf llegis- 

 ter, vol. 1. p. 124. 



Ten miles have been repeatedly trotted in 

 America within two or three seconds of thirty 

 minutes. 



A roan mare called Yankee Sal trotted, as 

 has been .stated without contradiction, in a 

 match against time, on the Course at Providence, 

 R,. I. which was at the time heavy and deep, 

 fifteen miles and a half in 48m. 43s., a rate of 

 speed so prodigious vnder the circumsla/ices, 

 that we have often suspected there may have 

 been an error as to the time. 



Lady Kate, a bay mare, 15 hands high, trot- 

 ted on the Canton Course, near Baltimore, 16 

 miles in 56 m. 13s., and the reporter adds, " she 

 could have done seventeen with ease." 



In October, 1831, Jerry perfonned 17 miles 

 on the CentreviUe Course, L. L in 58 minutes 

 under the saddle. 



In September, 1839, Tom Thumb, an Ameri- 

 can horse, was driven in England 16J miles in 

 56m. 45s. W^e shall have more to say of this 

 phenomenon, when we come to his performance 

 of 100 mile.s. 



In 1836, the grey gelding Mount Holly was 

 backed at $1,000 to $500, to trot twenty miles 

 within the hour. The attempt was made on the 

 10th of October, on the Hunting Park Course, 

 Pa., but failed. He performed 17 miles in 53m. 

 18s. widiout the least distress. He was miser- 

 ably jockeyed for the first five mile.s, doing no 

 one of them in less than five minutes. 



Pelham, a large bay gelding, in a match to go 

 16 miles within tlie hour, performed that distance 

 without any training in 58m. 28s. He went in 

 harness seven miles in 26m. 29s., when, the sul- 

 key being badly con.sti-ucted, he was taken out 

 and saddled, and mounted by Wallace (riding 

 leolbs. without his saddle) and won his match. 



Paid Pry, a bay gelding, -was backed to per- 

 foi-m 17| miles within the hour, under the saddle. 

 On the 9th of Novera])er, 1833, on the Union 

 Course, L. I., he won the match, performing 18 

 miles in 58m. 52s. Hiram Woodruff, weighing 



