Early Owners were Gentlemen 41 



mating them with thoroughbred stallions im- 

 ported from England, and from thoroughbreds 

 brought down from the Virginia stock, produced 

 a great number of the best race-horses of the 

 Southern turf. 



Perhaps the best animal which Colonel Alston 

 ever owned, and certainly the one to which he 

 was most partial, was a gray mare called Alborac. 

 One day in ^j^j she gave a beating to Tele- 

 graph, the favorite horse of Colonel William 

 Washington. Colonel Alston was so elated 

 over the victory that he turned to the latter 

 gentleman and said, in a tone of friendly badi- 

 nage, " Washington, what should you think of 

 a mare that, like her namesake, the horse of the 

 Prophet, can run in one night from earth to 

 heaven .? " Colonel Washington smilingly re- 

 plied, "Just tell me the distance, sir, and then 

 I'll give you an opinion as to what I think of the 

 performance." 



Gallatin, a chestnut horse foaled in 1799, by 

 Bedford, out of Mambrina by Mambrino, was an- 

 other of Colonel Alston's favorites, and he cer- 

 tainly justified his distinguished owner's regard, 

 for his successes on the South Carolina turf had 

 no precedent. He defeated everything when 



