PEDIGEEES, 



PERFORMANCES, AND ANECDOTES, 



OF FAMOUS AMERICAN RACERS OF THE MODERN DAY. 



The letter, above given, of an eminent and distinguished turf- 

 man, whose title to that honorable appellation is hereditary, and 

 known as widely in America as is the name of the American 

 Turf, brings down, it will be seen, the history of that Turf to 

 what may be called its palmiest days — the latter portion of the 

 first, and commencement of the second quarter of the present 

 century. 



Previous to the Eevolution, as we have seen, racing, as an 

 established, organized institution, was nearly, if not absolutely, 

 confined to tlie States of Maryland, Virginia, and South Caro- 

 lina, which were then emphatically the Racehorse Region of the 

 United States of America. 



Up to this period, with but few exceptions, all the distin- 

 guished blood mares and stallions had been imported into those 

 States, and in them, only, did a distinct and very noble strain 

 of thorough blood exist, which, although, of course, tracing 

 directly to English ancestry on both sides, may be, with some 

 propriety, termed Virginian ; since, as a general rule, whether 

 accidentally or from choice, the pedigrees of nearly all the im- 

 portations run back, through but three or four families, to the 

 same noted progenitors ; tlie most renowned of which, perhaps, 

 are the Godolphin Arabian, the Byerly Turk, Spanker, Grey- 



