EARLY MATCHES. 135 



one of them be alluded to in a brief notice in the Annals of 

 Sporting, an English work, vol. v., p. 74. " On the 10th De- 

 cember, 1823, the American Eoan started to do one mile in 

 3ra. 6s., npon the trot, for 50 sovereigns, and won, with two 

 seconds to spare." 



^ The next records which I find, are these from the American 

 Farmer of the following year, 1824. 



" New York, June 2. 



" Trotting. — Last Monday's Evening Post contained an ac- 

 count of an extraordinary trotting match on Sunbury Common, 

 England, in harness. Mr. Giles trotted his mare 28 miles, in the 

 short space of one hour and 57 seconds, which is said to be un- 

 paralleled, and that there is notliing like it on record. But let us 

 see how it compares with the match between Mr. Somerindyke's 

 horse Topgallant, and Mr. Coster's mare, Betsey Baker, who were 

 matched for one thousand dollars a side, to trot three miles in 

 harness, on the Jamaica road. They started yesterday, at one 

 o'clock, the horse driven by Mr. Purdy, the mare by Mr. How- 

 ard. The horse had the advantage in starting, as he came up 

 hard in hand, with fine action, a little ahead of the mare. The 

 word was given to start, and the horse led the mare in fine style 

 and beat her about 40 yards, performing the three measured 

 English miles in the short space of eight minutes and 42 seconds. 

 Topgallant last summer performed 12 miles on the road in 39 

 minutes, beating the celebrated horse Dragon, owned by T. 

 Carter. All three of the above horses were raised on Long 

 Island. Mr. Purdy trotted the Albany pony on the same 

 ground, against Mr. Howard one mile, which was performed in 

 2m. 40s. The Boston Blue horse trotted his eighteen miles 

 within the hour, and the Tredwell mare trotted her mile in 2m. 

 34s. The two last horses were taken to England, and won 

 several matches." — Evening Post. 



I presume that Boston Blue is the rat-tailed, iron-gray, men- 

 tioned above in the " Cambridge Road" match, elsewhere called 

 the Slate-colored American, and the Tredwell mare, the brown 

 mentioned in the same extract. Boston Blue is the horse re- 

 corded in the quotation from the Spirit as winning a thousand 

 dollars by doing, for Major Wm. Jones, the first mile ever re- 

 corded in three minutes, in 1818. The Tredwell mare, it ap- 



