550 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



Buffalo had forty-seven heats, with an average 2 m. 21|| s. ; Utiea, 

 thirty-four, with an average 2 m. 21|§s. ; Hartford, thirty-nine, 

 with an average of 2 ni. 21|| s. ; Rochester, thirty-nine, with an 

 average of only 2 m. :£0|| s. The last was the fastest trotting 

 meeting ever held. In 1879 there were two hundred and seventy- 

 five trotting horses on the turf, with a record of 2 ni. 30 s., or 

 better, and of these fourteen had faster records than Flora Temple's 

 famous one at Kalamazoo, just twenty years ago. 



Of late years the rising generation have carried off more 

 than their share of the laurels. Five years ago Blackwood 

 proudly boasted of the best three-year-old performance on record, 

 a mile in public in 2 m. 31 s. ; this year Jewctt reduces the score 

 to 2 m. 23 J s.; then Allie West's four-year-old record of 2 m. 

 29 s. was deemed wonderful. Now Trinket lops off nearly ten 

 seconds, trotting at Louisville, July 10, 1879, in the amazing time, 

 for a four-year-old, of 2 m. 19| s. Five years ago 2 m. 22|^ s. 

 was the limit of a five-year-old's ambition ; now Santa Glaus trots 

 his mile in 2 m. 18 s. Nor are these exceptional cases, for Stein- 

 way, among the three-year-olds, So-So and William H. among the 

 four-year-olds, and Von Arnini, Annette, Noontide, Fanny Wither- 

 spoon, Capoul, and Daisy Hamilton, among the five-year-olds, are 

 not far behind their brilliant competitors. 



When it is considered that by far the greater portion of the 

 best bred colts are kop', for driving purposes or the stud, and 

 that very few even of the most promising trotters are kept long on 

 the turf, the enormous increase in the number of fast horses 

 America is annually producing is still more marked. But with all 

 this the demand for fast driving horses has been so great that the 

 supply is not equal to the demand, and the increase in prices has 

 been even proportionately greater. 



AVhen, in 1858, jMr. William McDonald, of Baltimore, paid 

 $8000 lor Flora Temple, it was the highest price that had ever 

 been paid for a trotting horse, and was considered the full value of 

 the fastest trotter in the world; but now there are scores of horses 

 whose owners would scornfully refuse an offer of double that sum 

 for them. 



The money invested in horseflesh for road purposes only may be 

 judged by the amount spent by Mr. Robert Bonner, a gentleman 

 ■who never permits any of his horses to trot for money, but keeps 

 them solely for his own driving. For Pocahontas Mr. Bonner 

 gave 835,000 and another horse; Rarus cost him $36,000; for 

 Dexter he paid $33,0(J0; Edward Everett, $20,000; Startle, 

 $20,000; Edwin Forrest, $16,000; Lady Stout, $15,000; Grafton, 

 $15,000; Bruno, $15,000; the Auburn horse, $13,000; Wellesley 

 Boy, $12,000; Joe Elliott, $10,000; Maud Macy, $10,000; Mam- 

 briuo Bertie, $10,000; Dick Jamison, $10,000 ; Maybird, $9500; 



