402 TUK UlKSE. 



In detiuing mj position, I can subscribe to all this ; and 

 that they have run the fastest four miles of any ever run in this 

 country, by six seconds ; and yet think it " questionable " that 

 either of them is " the best horse ever produced in America/' 

 To say nothing more of Sir Archy, or their sire Boston — their 

 other ancestor, Florizel, like English Eclipse, knew nothing of 

 whip or spur, frequently distancing renowned competitors, and 

 retiring from the turf when no other opponent would meet liim ; 

 this, too, in the days of such " cracks " as the Maid of the Oaks, 

 of Post Boy, of First Consul, and of Oscar and others ; not one 

 of them daring to accept a challenge of $10,000 a side. Le- 

 comte's other ancestor, Timoleon, was so superior to his contem- 

 poraries, Reality, Lady Lightfoot, and others, in their palmy 

 days, that " the Napoleon of the Turf," the late AV. R. Johnson, 

 has said of him : " I have seen him run all the races in Vir- 

 ginia he ever ran ; his performances, from one to four-mile 

 heats, has been such as would do credit to the best runner in 

 either this country or Europe." To this day, the fastest race of 

 mile heats, at Newmarket, the spring he was three yeai's old, 

 was won by Timoleon in Im. 4Ts. — Im. 48s., distancing the 

 field the second heat. The preceding day he had won a match 

 i-ace of half a mile. Such authority has weight with " Ob- 

 server." Still he sees no reason why Lecomte and Lexington 

 may not be as far superior to all of the American horses as 

 Childers and Eclipse were reputed to be in England. But he 

 does not perceive that such a proposition is yet proven. 



One of " Observer's " vagaries was shared by Larkin — and 

 he saic the great race between the wonderful sons of Boston — 

 who concludes his statement as follows ; " there is a great di- 

 versity of opinion among all classes of the racing and sporting 

 community in regard to the question of superiorty between the 

 two horses, and if they were started on a match to-morrow, it is 

 very hard to say which would be the favorite." 



Although admitting " they are two of the best horses that 

 ever appeared on the American Turf," west of the Alleghanies ; 

 and that they are now superior to any horse upon the Amer- 

 ican Turf ; yet " Observer," from all he has heard, and for the 

 reasons he has assigned, is not prepared to say that either "Le- 

 comte " or Lexington is " the hest race-horse America has ever 



