238 THE HORSE, 



In regard to the vast sums of money won by Flora, it must 

 be remarked that most of her trots were for matches at high 

 prizes ; and that the value of trotting purses has been greatly 

 advanced of late years. 



The following account of the match against Tacony, in 

 which her prodigious time, 2.24^^, was made, is from the columns 

 of the New York Herald ; and with it as a Qvcditahle ^nale, I 

 close this brief sketch of the trotting turf of America, from its 

 first inceptit)n to the present day. 



There seems every probability that the next season will be 

 rich in events ; but before the cream of them shall have been 

 gathered, this work will, Deo volenie, be in the hands of my 

 readers, so that I judge it best to close the record with the close 

 of the bygone year. 



" Union Couese, L. I. 



"The Best Time on Record, 2.24^ in Harness. — Another 

 contest between those celebrated nags. Flora Temple and Tacony, 

 came off for a stake of $1,000. The distance was mile heats; 

 Flora Temple in harness and Tacony under the saddle. The 

 race was won by Flora Temple in one heat, which she performed 

 in the unprecedented time of 2.244^, distancing Tacony. This 

 time is one second less than ever before made, either under the 

 saddle or in harness. 



" Tacony, down the back stretch and to the half-mile pole, 

 went at a prodigious rate, evidently faster than the mare was 

 going — the gait must have been somewhere in the neighbor- 

 hood of 2.24 or less. If this had been continued without a break 

 up, it would have been difficult for the mare to have beaten him 

 in 2.24^ — the time in which the heat was performed. At the 

 rate at which Tacony went just previous to breaking, his rider 

 had not power to retain the horse on his centre of gravity. This 

 occurred in both instances, and both breaks were bad. It is 

 this power of preserving the equilibrium in the horse that con- 

 stitutes the skill of the rider and driver, and for which Hiram 

 Woodruff is so deservedly celebrated. 



"The attendance was rather slim, when we consider the ce- 

 lebrity of the horses, owing, no doubt, to the absence of sporting 

 men from the city and the approaching Presidential election. 



