130 THE TROTTINH-IIORSL OF AMERICA 



English thoroughbred of that name, who was the son of 

 Pot-8-os, and the sire of \Yhalehone, Whisker, Woful, 

 Web, Wire, etc. Of his pedigree nothing was known. 

 He looked like a thoroughbred horse, and was one of the 

 most splendid geldings I ever saw. At the time of thv) 

 race. Whalebone belonged to ]Mr. Coddle of Philadelphia, 

 and George Spicer rode him. 



Topgallant was trained and ridden by my uncle, George 

 Woodrulf, who was then a young man. He was then tive 

 feet ten inches high, and one hundred and forty-seven 

 pounds in weight. A. finer rider of a trotting-horse was 

 never sec/i. lie was straight, spare, and sinewy, very 

 strong and lasting. He is still the same upright, spare, 

 sinewy man, and as spry as ever with a horse, though more 

 than sixty years of age. Topgallant won the race after a 

 desperate struggle. Whalebone got one heat, and there 

 was a dead one. The time of the heats in this famous 

 race was as follows: 11m. IGs., 11m. OGs., 11m. 17s., 

 and 12m. 15s. Forty-five minutes and forty-four seconds 

 for the sixteen miles, which is just 2m. 52 l-8s. to the mile I 

 Now, was there a horse before, or has there been one since, 

 that in his twenty-second year could beat it ? I might go 

 further, and ask whether there will ever be one that can do 

 it again. 



The rate of this race was better than twenty miles an 

 hour ; and it may well be thought that the old horse of 

 twenty-two years old, who could trot four four-mile heats at 

 a gait that would have made twenty miles in less than 

 fifty-eight minutes, could have gone the twenty in an hour. 

 He could have gone along at an even rate, had it been 

 twenty miles against time, and would not liave been puslicd 

 along so as to make four miles in 11. OGs.. wliich was at the 

 rate of 2m. 4G?,s. to the mile. In long perlbrmancea 

 against time, it is the level, even rate that wins. If Capt. 

 McGowan had been made to go his fifth, sixth, 

 seventh, and eiglith miles in 11m. OGs. ijistead of lluL 



