TIIK Th. rriXG-IIORSE OF AMERICA. 133 



upon, George Woodruff mounte<] Whalebone for the third 

 beat. 



The excitement was very great, and away they went 

 again. This time Dread won ; and Wliak'bone, not having 

 won a heat in three, was ruled out. Now, then, George 

 Woodruff mounted old Topgallant for the last struggle. 

 At that time thero was no rule against having more than 

 one horse entered and started in a race of heats from the 

 same stable. In this race we had three, — Topgallant, 

 Whalebone, and (Jolumbus ; and such were the vicissitudes 

 and fortunes of the day, that, before it was over, my uncle 

 liad ridden them all three. The only horses that had won 

 a heat were Collector, Topgallant, and Dread ; and. of 

 course, these alone came to the post for the fourth heat, 

 the great riders, Peter Whelan, George Woodruff, and 

 George Spicer, being on them respectively. The veteran 

 of twenty-four years, old Topgallant, went away under full 

 sail, and led them for two miles and some two or three 

 hundred yards ; but Dread then came along and passed him, 

 and won the deciding heat easily. 



These horses, it will be perceived, trotted twelve miles ; 

 and here was old Topgallant, beaten in the race, it is true, 

 but winner of a heat, and second in the last heat, thus 

 getting second place in the race. The following week, after 

 this great race at Philadelphia, we went to Baltimore, where 

 they gave a purse of three hundred dollars, three-mile heats. 

 Topgallant and Whalebone contended for it ; George Wood- 

 ruff riding Topgallant, and George Spicer, Whalebone. Top- 

 gallant won it. This shows the tremendous endurance and 

 recuperative energy of that wonderful horse's constitution. 

 One week a very hard race of four three-mile heats, against 

 all the best horses of the day : the next week another race 

 of three-mile heats against Whalebone ; and this Topgal- 

 lant won easily, being, as I have before said, but which 

 cannot too often be repeated, in hid twenty-fourth year. 



It is here worthy of remark that Whalebone himself w;i^ 



