TUE TliOTTING-IIORSE OF AMERICA. VM 



the third quarter had been knocked down, run over, ^nd con- 

 eiderably injured by Ripton ; and I should say with the 

 English jury, when the judge told them that the assault 

 was proved, and the plaintiff was a gi-eat sufferer by the 

 batter}^, " sarved him right." What business had he on the 

 track, in the way of the horses. The judges heard all sides, 

 and deliberated, and finally concluded that the evidence was 

 too conflicting to warrant a decision either way : all bets 

 must be declared off, and the main stakes drawn. 



This was not Ripton's last regular race on the course. He 

 belonged at the time to a gentleman named William Mc- 

 Cray of Philadelphia. Although he was nearly twenty 

 years old, I still had a great fondness for Ripton, and went 

 on and bought him. I gave $250 and another horse. In 

 the following winter he was put up at a raffle for $1,000. 

 The tickets were disposed of, and the raffle came off at the 

 Union Hotel, Broadway. Mr. Samuel Isaacs won, and so 

 Ripton became his property. He did not keep the old horse 

 long, but sold him to John Ryerson of Patterson, N. J. 

 Here he was worked on the road. 



In the following year, they matched Ripton to go two 

 races under saddle against a horse called Jersey. They 

 were half-mile heats, and were trotted in the lane at Patter- 

 son. I believe the old horse lost one, and won one. In the 

 July of 1852, Mr. Ryerson brought him to the Island, and 

 entered him in a purse of mile-heats, th/ee in five, on the 

 Centreville Course. George Rayner's chestnut gelding Se- 

 lim and my mare Boston Girl were also in it. Ripton waa 

 hardly in condition for the company. His day was almost 

 done ; and he was distanced in the first heat, which Selim 

 won in 2ra. 35s. ; and this ended his public career. He waa 

 afterwards taken to the western part of the State, I believe ; 

 and there was a report current, some years after that, that 

 he broke a leg and had to be shot. By that time the coun- 

 try swarmed with Riptons. You might find them trotting 



