1 66 Making the American Thoroughbred 



In the best racers in England at that time the Buzzard- 

 Diomed cross was the most prominent, and in this country 

 Woodpecker (by Bertrand), winner of every race he ran, 

 was a forcible illustration of its worth. The success of 

 this intermixture of blood was doubtless the basic reason 

 for Connolly's good opinion of John Bascombe. But the 

 colt's early performances did not come up to Connolly's 

 expectations and he was sold in a lot of four or five others, 

 including Bill Austin (by Bertrand dam by Timoleon), to 

 Connolly's son-in-law, Maj. John Blevins, of South Ala- 

 bama. Maj. Blevins, finding that Bascombe could beat 

 Bill Austin in all their trials, sold the latter to Col. John 

 Crowell, of Fort Mitchell, Alabama, who put him in 

 charge of M. L. Hammond to be trained. 



Hammond had trained for President Jackson and his 

 private Secretary Maj. A. J. Donelson, and if he had not 

 learned his system from "Old Hickory" he certainly 

 agreed with the President of the United States as to the 

 necessity of severe treatment in training race horses. 

 Hammond's methods were condemned by many but he 

 brought results where others failed. It was so with both 

 Bill Austin and John Bascombe. In a race between these 

 two horses, at Mt. Meigs, Alabama, November 24, 1835, 

 Austin defeated Bascombe, and Maj. Blevins, miffed at 

 his defeat, let Bascombe go for a small sum to join Bill 

 Austin in Col. Crowell's stable. Hammond then put 

 Bascombe through the "third degree" and brought him 

 into the winning class, on two 3-mile occasions. 



Over in South Carolina, in the stable of Col. Wade 

 Hampton, at this time, was a famous racer, Argyle (by 

 Mon's Tonson, dam Thistle by Ogle's Oscar), owned 

 jointly by Col. Hampton and Col. W. R. Johnson, 

 and another, and valued at $15,000. Just for pastime 

 Argyle's owners proposed to Col. Crowell to put $17,000 



