20 AMERICAN TROTTING MATCH. 



her speed and staying power, she was a weight carrier, stood 

 fifteen hands one and a half inches high, with as good a shoulder 

 and foreleg as a riding horse could possibly have." 



It was not until 1791 that the first English Stud Book was 

 published, 



■ 36. — In America, the same blood has been used, in addition 

 to many other useful purposes, to gratify the natural taste for 

 trotting matches. The descendants of Messenger, the son of 

 Mambrino, imported in 1786, have achieved most success in this 

 line. The horses are often trotted against time, the great 

 ambition being to get a horse to trot twenty miles within an 

 hour. This sounds a cruel distance for such a pace, but we lost 

 many of our prejudices against it when we first saw it done on 

 an American course. 



It may sound paradoxical, but it is nevertheless pretty safe 

 to conclude that a race is never a cruel one if it is really a fast one. 

 Whenever real distress begins the pace must slacken, and the horse 

 can only make good time when in a condition to- do it Avithout 

 any distress. Thus in that barbarous race between Sharper and 

 I he Cossack, the pace was slow, three minutes thirty-four and 

 a half seconds being taken for each mile ; both horses having 

 been urged on long after they were distressed and exhausted. 

 But in the comparatively humane race between Fair Nell and 

 the Arah the pace was fast, each mile being performed in two 

 minutes eighteen and three quarter seconds, thus proving that 

 the last mile was done with unexhausted energy. 



37. — We will briefly describe the race against time, which 

 made us feel more happy about American trotting matcthes. We 

 were waiting in San Francisco for a steamer towards the end of 

 1871, when we saw in the morning papers that a large wager had 

 been laid that a certain mare, unknown to fame, would trot that 

 day twenty miles within the hour. We were told by the local 

 sages that she was not at all likely to succeed ; that she was now 

 sixteen years old, and that she had been sold in her prime for forty 

 dollars. Eeasons were also given for believing that the wager was 

 fictitious, and only got up to draw some greenhorns into a trap. 



On arriving at the course we tried to be as knowing as the cute 



