166 THK HORSE. 



matcli, thougli Dick was the better liorse. With such an ani- 

 mal as Pcytona, he was clearly and indisputably over-matched, 

 and with Fashion, he had not a show for it. But racers such 

 as Fashion and her immortal rival Boston, are not met with 

 every day ; and it might even be said of those who ran against 

 them, 



Contendissc juvat, 



or, in other words, as a distinguished Statesman is reported to 

 have said, " it is honor enough to have run a bad second to 

 Andrew Jackson ! " And so it would have been, if one had ever 

 run a bad second ! One cannot, however, help thinking, in that 

 contingency of Horace's " Non Jovi quicquid simile aut secun- 

 dum,^'' — and so one may say, without much fear of contradiction, 

 at the present day, even although their time has been beaten 

 hollow, with infinitely reduced weights, and over an immeasur- 

 ably faster track. 



Could such a thing be possible as to recall the days that are 

 fled, and to put Fashion, Boston, Lecomte, Lexington, and Pryor, 

 if you please, all on the Union course together, in the heyday 

 of their blood, and their most blooming condition, at any age 

 from three years old to aged, with northern weight for age ; 

 I, for one, would be willing to risk my shot, in the first 

 place, upon old Whitenose, and the Jersey mare ; and, in the 

 next place, against any such time, as that made over the New 

 Orleans courses. 



During this same period, there were other horses almost in- 

 numerable, worthy of mention, among whom it will not be in- 

 vidious to name Duane, better perliaps than some, whom I have 

 mentioned ; Argyle, and the mares. Miss Foote, Trifle, Gipsey, 

 and the famous Keel, by imported Glencoe, her dam imported 

 Gallopade by Catton, herself doubly famous as a distinguished 

 winner in her own person, and as the dam of the cracks ^ar 

 excellence of the day. 



During the period I have here specified, occurred all the 

 great and time-honored races of America, with the exception of 

 two or three recent events, which are to be ascribed to a differ- 

 ent strain of blood, to a new school of breeding, whether for 

 better or worse, in the long run, perhaps it yet remains to be 

 seen, and of which I shall S2)eak, in their place hereafter. 



