THE FOUR GREAT RACES. 167 



Those great races, which I esteem as worthy of immortality 

 as ever was the match of Hambletonian and Diamond, or any 

 other match race, if there ever were any other, of yet greater 

 fame, are those of American Eclipse and Sir Hemy ; of Ariel, 

 daughter of Eclipse, and Flirtilla ; of Black Maria, and the three 

 mares, known as the twenty-mile race : of Wagner and Gray 

 Eagle, at the Oaklands course, Lexington ; and of Boston and 

 Fashion, on the Union course. Long Island. 



Those, as the old Marshal Trivulciano said, who had fought 

 in thirty-six pitched battles, yet had never seen a stricken field 

 until he fought at Marignano, those were combats of giants, all 

 the rest were child's play. 



Of those, the great events, of the great turf campaigns of 

 this country, I have been so fortunate as to procure accurate de- 

 scriptions by the pens of eye-witnesses, who will, by all true 

 turfmen be admitted, the most competent to form accurate 

 opinions and draw sound conclusions on all matters concerning 

 this nobler sport than'the Olympic games of old, and whose pen 

 paintings of such scenes have, long ago, been pronounced first 

 and best by mouths of wisest censure. 



The first of these, the great race of Eclipse and Sir Henry, 

 the time of which was so long tlie hest, so long believed to be 

 not only unapproached, but unapproachable — together with the 

 memoirs, pedigrees, j^erformances and description of the rival 

 racers, is from the pen of one, whom it is enough to name, 

 "The Old Turfman," Cadwalader C. Golden, Esq., indisputably 

 the best authority of his day, in this or, perhaps, in any other 

 country, on all matters connected with the horse of pure blood. 



From the same distinguished source is the memoir and pedi- 

 gree of Ariel, the list of her performances, and her almost un- 

 equalled race with Flirtilla, 



The twenty-mile race of Black Maria, with her memoir and 

 performances, selected from the columns of the Spirit of the 

 Times, is understood to be from the pen of the brother of her 

 late distinguished owner — that celebrated breeder, j^romoter 

 and benefactor of the agricultural interests of this continent, the 

 late Mr. Charles Henry Hall, to whose family I take this op- 

 portunit}^ of recording my manifold obligations, and of return- 

 ing my most sincere thanks, for the facilities afforded to me of 



