The First Race Meetings 17 



red-coated invader came across seas to learn the 

 little lesson of '76. 



Immediately subsequent to the Revolution 

 racing-stables were established in Virginia and 

 Maryland as well as in South Carolina. It was 

 then that the turf began to have intimate knowl- 

 edge of Colonel John Tayloe and the Messrs. 

 Hoomes, Selden, and Johnson, in Virginia. In 

 Maryland, Governors Ogle, Ridgely, Wright, 

 Lloyd, and Sprigg interested themselves. In South 

 Carolina, Colonel Washington, General Pinckney, 

 General Wade Hampton, William Alston, General 

 M'Pherson, Colonel Mitchell, and other distin- 

 guished citizens gave themselves to the ownership 

 of thoroughbreds. 



In the North, racing was begun on Long Island, 

 but at that time the names associated with it were 

 obscure and the sport was not of much character. 

 A few years made great changes in the Northern 

 turf, but it was many, many seasons before it ap- 

 proached that respectability and had that social 

 stamp which characterized it in the states of 

 the South. 



So, although we can trace racing back to the 

 very earliest infancy of our history, the turf was 

 not conducted on a systematic plan until about 



