INTRODUCTION 



It is a matter worthy of note, that in a country which, perhaps, 

 exceeds any other in the civilized world, in the general appre- 

 ciation, and general nse, among all classes of citizens, and in all 

 districts of the land, of that noble animal, The Hokse, there is 

 no American standard work on the subject. 



With a strain of thorough-blood, derived undoubtedly from 

 the best stock of the mother country, but now entirely acclimated, 

 and in some degree altered or modified by climature and breed, 

 and trained under different auspices, subject to widely-different 

 diseases, the consequence of different temperatures and treat- 

 ment, and run under different conditions of time, weight, and 

 distance — in a word, educated, used and handled under circum- 

 stances wholly variant — we have been contented, hitherto, to 

 depend absolutely on English authorities. 



We have no history of the Turf of America, unless such as 

 maybe gleaned from the chance notices of daily journals, or the 

 statistical information to be culled from the dry details of the 

 Stud Book and Turf Register, or from reference to the spirited 

 and glowing race records of " The Spirit of the Times." 



With an entirely new application of the powers of the Horse 

 in trotting and pacing, as practised exclusively in North Amer- 

 ica, producing a class or caste — I cannot consistently term it 



