35 



JLACKWOOD, JR., is a black stallion, 16} 

 hands high. He was bred by B. F. Van 

 Meter, Winchester, Ky., being foaled in 1871. 

 His sire was Blackwood, and his dam was 

 Belle Sheridan, by Blood's Black Hawk, who in her day 

 was one of the finest show mares of Kentucky, and bore 

 away many yards of blue ribbon from the speed rings and 

 fair grounds of that State. With her daughter, La Belle, 

 she showed against everything in double harness ; and it is 

 said that she was never defeated, single or double, and that 

 the younger mare was never beaten except by her dam. 

 When a suckling, he was sold to Mr. Joseph Vandevere, 

 and in October, 1871, was purchased by Mr. A. J. McKim- 

 min, of Nashville, Tenn., for his present owner, Mr. Jacob 

 Zell, of the same place. He was broken to harness, and 

 shown at all the principal fairs in Tennessee, and at several 

 in Alabama and Mississippi, when he was a yearling, and 

 never failed to get first honors in his class. When he was 

 two years old, he had a great deal of work for a horse of 

 his tender age. Very often, after taking his track work in 

 the morning, he was driven to Nashville and back, double, 

 in the evening, a distance of five miles. His average rations 

 were twenty-one quarts of oats a day during this year. As 

 a two-year-old he served two mares, neither proving with 

 foal. He had plenty of track work in 1874, and in August 

 trotted the first race in which he got a record, at Nashville, 

 winning in straight heats, the first and fastest being trotted 

 in 2:33f. He next appeared at Lexington, where he was 

 beaten by Lady Stout, after winning the first heat. Late 

 in the same year he trotted and won four races, and got 

 nineteen foals, and was fed, while in training, eighteen 

 quarts of oats per day. The season of 1875, when he was 

 a four-year-old, was an extremely active one for him. He 

 was put to work in February, and kept going until Novem- 

 ber, and won an almost unbroken series of -victories. He 

 travelled over five thousand miles by rail, served twenty- 

 eight mares during the season, and was fed sixteen quarts 

 of oats and three quarts of wheat bran per day. He began 

 the season by walking over at Albany, for the Country 

 Gentleman Stakes, in September, then returned to Lexing- 

 ton, Ky., and won in three straight heats time, 2:32} 

 2:34 2:32. From there he went to St. Louis, Mo., where 

 be was beaten in the Free for All, against such trotters as 

 Cosette, Little Fred, Huckleberry, &c., after a desperate 

 race over a heavy track. He then went to Goshen, N. Y., 



and the four-year-old stake, finishing every heat under a 

 pull, in 2:35 2:36} 2:40. From here he went to Wash- 

 ington, D. C., where he was entered in the 2:30 class, but 

 did not start, as the race was withdrawn. He then went 

 into winter quarters at Nashville, Tenn., apparently unim- 

 paired by this vast amount of railroad travelling and hard 

 work, which, taken with his three-year-old career, would 

 have been thought enough to kill any other colt of his age, 

 but which seems to have had no more effect upon this iron 

 horse of Tennessee than so many days spent in his paddock. 

 During the past season a similar policy has been pursued 

 with him. He served four mares in January, thirteen in 

 February, and no less than sixty-two during the season, and 

 yet he trotted ten races, winning nine of them. His first 

 appearance the present year was at Nashville, Tenn., in the 

 2:29 class, May 23d, which he won, Frank Reeves taking 

 the first heat in 2:25}, and Blackwood, Jr., the next three 

 in 2:24 2:25} 2:27. Three days later he won the Free 

 for All in three straight heats, of which the time was 2:24J 

 2:24} 2:36. For these races he was taken directly 

 from the stud, where he had been serving heavily, and it 

 must be borne in mind that they do not represent him in 

 trained form. He then returned to his stud duties, but 

 took another recess in the latter part of June and early 

 July, during which he trotted four races at Harrodsburg, 

 Lexington and Cynthiana, Ky, and north of the Ohio, 

 winning each at an exercising gait, in moderate time, there 

 being nothing to push him. These performances caused 

 him to be looked upon as a very likely winner in the five- 

 year-old class, at the Breeders' Centennial Meeting, at Phila- 

 delphia, where he was entered, although he would have to 

 encounter the supposed-to-be invincible Governor Sprague, 

 besides Elsie Good and Lady Mills. He met them under 

 unfavorable circumstances for him, and was obliged to lower 

 his colors to Sprague, in the Independence Eace, (already 

 described in the notice of Governor Sprague on page 31), 

 but got second money, and defeated his conqueror for the 

 championship Stallion Cup, which emblem he now holds. 

 His fastest heat for it was trotted in 2:23. The inscription 

 on this trophy styles him " The Iron Horse of Tennessee," 

 and certainly none ever better deserved such a sobriquet. 

 Throughout his career, the orthodox notions of training have 

 been reversed ; while in preparation for races he has served 

 mares, done ordinary road work, and been fed like a glutton, 

 but all seems harmless to his wonderful constitution. 



