RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



descendants to activity in harness. It was fashion, 

 molded by legal enactments, which placed Messen- 

 ger at the foundation of the trotting structure of 

 America. In 1802 New York passed an act to pre- 

 vent horse racing, but in 1821 this act was so 

 amended as to permit the " training, pacing, trot- 

 ting, and running of horses upon regulated courses, 

 and upon private property in the County of Queens." 

 Races, however, were allowed only in the months of 

 May and October, and the sheriff of the county was 

 required to be on hand to supervise in the inter- 

 est of morality these " trials of speed." Under the 

 amended act the New York Trotting Club was 

 formed in 1825 to improve the speed of road horses, 

 and, located near Jamaica, L. I., it was our first 

 trotting course. The trotting horse, however, did 

 not obtain fashionable rank until rivalry for the 

 ownership of the best road horse became earnest be- 

 tween Commodore C. Vanderbilt and Robert Bon- 

 ner. These stalwart figures gave impetus to the 

 evolution, whose progressive steps are marked by 

 the achievements of Dexter, Goldsmith Maid, Rarus, 

 St. Julien, Maud S., Sunol, Nancy Hanks, Alix, 

 The Abbot, Cresceus, Major Delmar, and Lou 

 Dillon. They made the pacer unfashionable on the 

 road and track by refusing to buy him, and breeders 

 and trainers vied with each other to produce trotters 

 to meet the demands created by the wholesome strife 

 between the Vanderbilt and Bonner clans. Roads 

 and vehicles rapidly improved, and the resolute ex- 



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