CHAPTER IV 



OLD DOMINION WAS TURF MOTHER 



It, unhappily, did not fall to the part of Vir- 

 ginia to have so faithful a chronicler, and, while 

 the Old Dominion was really the mother of the 

 American turf, and during all of these early years 

 was giving frequent race meetings on her own 

 soil, much of the information which we have of 

 them, especially prior to the Revolutionary War, 

 is so meagre as to be hardly worth the while of 

 credence. 



However, there came a time, very soon after 

 the Revolution, when the Fairfield, Broad Rock, 

 Newmarket, and Tree Hill meetings were faith- 

 fully reported, and the new course at the city of 

 Washington had been opened in such public way 

 that the records could not be lost. 



It is, indeed, in beginning to write the story of 

 the turf in Virginia that we begin to tell of the 

 greatest achievements, both in breeding and rac- 

 ing lines, which had been attained in this country 

 by any single state up to the time of the Civil 

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