The First Race Meetings 23 



called Ranger, the property of Colonel Wash- 

 ington, seems to have been the cock of the walk 

 in the state, winning all the principal events, 

 until beaten by the celebrated Comet in 1788, 

 carrying 140 pounds, four-mile heats, over the 

 Newmarket Course (the exact location of which 

 has already been described) near Charleston. It 

 must have been a fine race and a very sporting 

 affair, according to tradition. 



Comet was a black horse by Mark Anthony, 

 bred by Mr. Nash, in North Carolina. He was 

 a wonderfully great little horse, very small, only 

 fourteen hands and a half high — some accounts 

 say only fourteen hands. He was a black, with 

 blaze face, and had eyes in which the iris was of 

 a very light gray color, and all his legs were 

 white to the knees — he ran with his hind legs 

 very much apart, but he could run all day. 

 He was a winner from Petersburg to Charleston. 

 He was first brought to South Carolina by Mr. 

 Twining. Comet was sometimes entered by 

 Colonel Alston and sometimes by General 

 Hampton. 



Ranger was a descendant of an imported horse 

 by the same name (got by Martindale's Regulus, 

 a son of the Godolphin Arabian), imported into 



