Whence the American Tboroughhred ii 



race-horse of America, she was also the mother of 

 the " four-milers." Some of the most briUiant 

 social events of the South have clustered about 

 the four-mile races. While there were contests 

 at four miles and even at four miles and repeat 

 in England, such events were not considered the 

 true test of merit in a horse ; and that kind of 

 racing became really American, since for seventy- 

 five years the four-mile-heat horse was the king 

 of his day. 



The ascendency of Virginia on the turf for 

 many years was decided. It could not have been 

 otherwise, since, beginning with Bulle Rock, fol- 

 lowing closely with Dabster, joining then with 

 Jolly Roger, Janus, and Fearnought, importing 

 mares of equal quality with these stallions, and 

 continuing to import as each gentleman upon his 

 plantation needed a stallion to replace one gone, 

 it is no wonder that Virginia should have held 

 her place as the first thoroughbred mother of this 

 land. As it has been said, for more than fifty 

 years all the best thoroughbred stallions and all 

 the best thoroughbred mares in America were 

 owned on the plantations that lay along the James 

 and the Rappahannock rivers or in the Carolinas. 



The men who gave their energies to the devel- 



