First Tboroiighhreds of the North 133 



above Petersburg, to the imported horse Obscur- 

 ity, and produced from him a wonderfully fine 

 filly, the grandam of Rattler, Childers, Sumpter, 

 Flirtilla; and great grandam of Ivanhoe, Polly 

 Hopkins, Hiazim, Inaugural, etc., etc. Blackeyed 

 Susan, Sir Robin, Rusty Robin, Massena, Equality, 

 Roxana, and many others, and some not tried, 

 were the descendants of the wonderful, ' the old 

 Cub mare,' Thus, sir, has she been rendered 

 wonderful and worthy of notice. And will you 

 look to Lexington, Kentucky, for the Sumpters, 

 and to your own pages for the Childers and 

 Rattlers, and to the present Polly Hopkins, and 

 not say there is something still more 'wonderful'.? 

 " Respectfully, 



" John C. Goode." 



With the foaling by the Cub Mare of Maria 

 Slamerkin, the birth of the Northern turf may 

 be said to have begun. There had been racing 

 on Long Island and in New Jersey before Wildair 

 and the Cub Mare were imported, but the horses 

 engaged were not thoroughbred animals, and the 

 prizes for which they ran were so small that the 

 sport itself was hardly lifted to the dignity of an 

 event. There were several paths laid out on that 



