Road-riding Movements 297 



bilt, Robert Bonner, Frank Work, William H. 

 Vanderbilt, Shepherd F. Knapp, George B. 

 Alley, Charles H. Kerner, and William Turnbull. 

 The first noted pair of Mr. Bonner were Flatbush 

 Maid and Lady Palmer, and it was in the 

 autumn of 1861 that he drove these good mares 

 around Union Course in 2.27. At Fashion 

 Course, May 10, 1862, he drove the same pair 

 two miles in 5.01J, the first mile in 2.26, and 

 there was profound sensation. Commodore 

 Vanderbilt's pair were Post Boy and Plow Boy, 

 and he was jealous of their reputation. The 

 spirit of rivalry between Bonner and Vanderbilt 

 grew more intense with the years, and their 

 respective friends caught the fever, and breeders 

 and trainers reaped the profit. Later John D. 

 Rockefeller, William Rockefeller, Frank Work, 

 William H. Vanderbilt, T. C. Eastman, and C. J. 

 Hamlin were carried forward by the torrent, and 

 the road-riding movement was at its zenith. 



The expansion of the city destroyed Harlem 

 Lane for fast driving ; and then at the suggestion 

 of prominent road riders I started an agitation 

 for a speedway on the west side of Central 

 Park. During the administration of Hugh J. 

 Grant as mayor of New York, a bill was passed 



