4 Making the American Thoroughbred 



respective merits of certain individuals and strains of 

 blood was inevitable. Thus, it was reported in the 1830*5 

 that the controversies then going on in Kentucky between 

 the "friends" of Medoc and the "friends" of Woodpecker, 

 and, in Tennessee, between the partisans, respectively, of 

 Luzborough and Leviathan, were as intense as were the 

 controversies between the Whig and Tory parties of olden 

 time. These rivalries furnished several generations that 

 had no exciting pastime except war and hunting, the 

 "manly and gentlemanly amusement, the sports of the 

 turf." 



For be it remembered that in all ages and in all climes 

 men will have diversion from their daily routine. The 

 native Hawaiian who, standing erect on a plank, rides the 

 waves for a mile, into shore, is controlled in his inborn- 

 love of excitement, risk and adventure, by his environ- 

 ment; but not less so than were the people of the South 

 who, before the appearance of modern sports, found on 

 the race course an opportunity for recreation based upon 

 business necessity and economy and attended with that 

 uncertainty of results which exhilarates every human 

 endeavor in war, in politics and in all commercial 

 and professional pursuits. The race course was the 

 natural product of conditions as much so as the cotton 

 gin and the slave trade. Indeed, it would have been very 

 remarkable under conditions then existing, if horse rac- 

 ing had not become the great national amusement. 



Prior to the Revolution, an old chronicle tells us, 

 "races were established almost at every town and con- 

 siderable place in Virginia: when the inhabitants almost 

 to a man were devoted to this fascinating and rational 

 amusement: when all ranks and denominations were fond 

 of horses, especially those of the race breed: when gentle- 

 men of fortune expended large sums on their studs, 



