NEW \OEK TROTTING CLUB. 137 



On a later page of the same volume, there is a record, 

 which, as it relates to an English match, it is not worth the 

 while to extract entire, to the effect that " Mr. Willan's horse, 

 which beat the Slate-colored American " — Boston Blue, I ima- 

 gine — " was backed to trot three miles in nine minutes, for 

 100 guineas." 



The horse did his first mile in 2m. 53s., and at the end of the 

 second mile had 12 seconds to spare ; but when a hundred yards 

 from home he broke, and was so hemmed in by the crowd when 

 turned back, that he could not clear himself, and lost his match 

 by 5 seconds. 



This system of turning, by the way, when a horse breaks, is 

 one of the errors in English trotting rules, which has militated 

 against all pi'ogress or improvement. A horse loses enough by 

 being pulled down into his stroke again, as every driver knows. 

 If he must turn back, an unsteady horse, such as Pelham, would 

 be distanced every time he started. 



This year brings us to what may be called the origin of 

 authorized and authenticated trotting, as in it was established 

 the association of which this, from the same journal of May 19, 

 1826, is the first record extant. 



" The New York Trotting Club was got up last year with a 

 view of improving the speed of road horses, which they coa- 

 sider the most useful of their species, and it met with g^uat en- 

 couragement from the admirers of that noble and most useful 

 class of animals ; the following are the inducements offered by 

 the Club to persons owning good horses to train and enter them 

 for the prizes, and b,y these means many horses whose speed is 

 now in obscurity will be brought into notice, and consequently 

 their value enhanced. The Club's course is near the Jamaica 

 Turnpike, about a mile below the Union Course, L. I. 



" The first day's purse this spring, of $200, will be trotted 

 for under the saddle, on the 16th inst., at 2 p.m. Two-mile 

 heats. 



"Second day, the 17th, a purse of $200, to be trotted for in 

 harness. Two-mile heats. 



" Third day, the 18th, a sweepstake of $200, under the sad- 

 dle ; three-mile heats, open for trotters, rackers, and pacers. 



" A piece of plate is to form the half of each purse." 



