42 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 



SO early a period in the history of the American Turf, the dif- 

 ficulty of ascertaining how far records or registries have been 

 preserved, or were kept from the first, has been materially en- 

 hanced. Yet, on the whole, it may be regarded as remarkable 

 rather that so many pedigrees can be unequivocally followed 

 out, than that a few should be obscure and untraceable farther 

 than to an imported mare. Indeed, it must be granted as a fact 

 which cannot be questioned or doubted, fully established both 

 by their own performances and by the unfailing transmission of 

 their hereditary qualities, that our American horses are as cer- 

 tainly thorough-bred as are any of those English champions, 

 whose blood no one ever dreams of disputing, which go back, 

 like that of Eclipse himself, or many others of equal renown, to 

 an unknown dam or sire. 



From Virginia and Maryland, the racing spirit extended 

 rapidly into the Carolinas, where it has never to this day flagged. 

 The oldest race-courses in this country, which are yet kept up 

 for purposes of sport, are the Newmarket course, near Peters- 

 burg, Virginia ; and the Washington course, near Charleston, 

 South Carolina. At Alexandria, D. C, there was a race-course 

 early in the last century, and -the courses in the neighborhood 

 of Richmond have been in existence above seventy years. 



It was not until about the commencement of the present cen- 

 tury, that what njay be called race-courses proper were estab- 

 lished in New York ; the first club for the promotion of the breed 

 of horses by means of racing dating from 1804; although long 

 previously the improvement of the breed of horses had created 

 much interest in that State, celebrated stock-getters having 

 been imported as early as IT 64 and 1765, 



Into Pennsylvania, a State which has never particularly dis- 



