The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



179 



my friends alter I had had the best years out 

 of them, hut nowadays everybody has auto- 

 mobiles. A number of years ago 1 tried a 

 new experiment. 1 sent two horses to the 

 New York auction, expecting to get $2,000 

 or S3.n1 :o for them. Instead. I got only $500 

 for one and $385 for the other. But both of 

 them found good homes. 



"Senator L., the one that went for $385. 



i>eat the best horse in New York afterward, 



ami his owner wrote me that the silver eup 



he wen was worth, more than $1,000 to him. 



\b. .ut twenty years ago f bought a horse 



at Hartford for $10,000. Me trotted a race 

 for me the same afternoon, and with his win- 

 nings he cost, me $8,500. Next day 1 sold 

 him to William Rockefeller for William H. 

 Vanderbilt at $15,000, and Mr. Vanderbilt 

 was so pleased that at Saratoga afterward he 

 talked to me about him for an hour. The 

 horse had gone double for him with Maud S., 

 breaking the world's record at that time for 

 the mile in 2:15 1-2. 



"The best horse I ever owned was Ethel's 

 Pride. She cost me $10,000, but she soon 

 won the $10,000 purse at Syracuse." 



Boston Blue Was First Trotter to Beat 



Three Minutes 



(By The Veteran) 



IX the Summer of 1820 an advertise- 

 ment appeared in a paper published in 

 Boston in which the Boston Jockey- 

 Club offered to give a purse of $1,000 

 to any horse which would trot a mile 

 in three minutes. 



The paper containing this announcement 

 came to the notice of Orrin B. Palmer, who 

 lived near YVaterville, Me. 



A short time previous he had secured a 

 rangy, close-cropped bay gelding, who had 

 a slanting or very oblique shoulder, and 

 whose legs stood well under him. The horse 

 stood about 15.2 hands high and weighed 

 nearly i.oco pounds. Such is the description 

 which Mr. Palmer gave to Hall C. Burleigh, 

 of Vassalboro, wdio was an expert horseman 

 and a breeder of prize Hereford cattle. 



The horse had been used for two seasons 

 by David Xourse in towing scows and long 

 boats up the Kennebec River from Augusta 

 to YVaterville. After Mr. Palmer had used 

 the horse a little while he found he had a 

 trotter with a great burst of speed for those 

 days, and privately timed him on the ice 

 where the footing was very smooth and 

 solid. 



When the offer of the Jockey Club came 

 to Mr. Palmer, he determined to go to Bos- 

 ton and make a try for it. He immediately 

 fixed up a gig out of an old pair of chaise 

 wheels and, hitching his horse to it, started 

 for Boston. 



On his way he called on his brother-in- 

 law, at Exeter, N. H., and stopped over 

 night. He said nothing of his business to 

 Boston until morning, when he informed his 

 brother-in-law what he was going for. The 



lixeter man was quick to catch the idea, and 

 it was agreed that he should take a vessel 

 and go to Boston with a big sum of money 

 to bet on the horse. 



Mr. Palmer and the brother-in-law arrived 

 in Boston in good time. The horseman 

 from the Kennebec soon made a match to 

 beat three minutes with the approval of the 

 Jockey Club. The trial came off over the 

 Lynn turnpike, wdiere a mile course was 

 measured off. The gelding had been named 

 Zuarrom, and by that name he still is known 

 in the annals of early Maine trotters. 



In this race, to please someone's fancy, the 

 horse was entered as Boston Blue. The 

 traditions of early trotting around Lynn and 

 Salem are to the effect that Boston Blue 

 trotted a mile in better than three minutes. 

 The race was made with competent judges at 

 the start and finish, with two men on running 

 horses accompanying the trotter to see that 

 he did not indulge in breaks or try the run- 

 ning game himself. A good deal of money 

 was wagered on this first great trotting race 

 near Boston where time was vanquished. 



Mr. Palmer and his brother-in-law won 

 more than $800, and the Jockey Club gave 

 the $1,000, as they had agreed. The time 

 of the mile was 2m. 57s. 



In 1853 Mr. Palmer visited Hall C. Bur- 

 leigh at'his home in Vassalboro and related 

 the storv as it now appears. There is no 

 doubt as to its authenticity, nor was the time 

 considered fast by Mr. Palmer, wdio related 

 that there were other horses in his vicinity, 

 near Waterville, as fast or faster than the 

 horse wdio was the first to demonstrate that a 

 mile in three minutes was easy. 



