134 The American Thoroughbred - 



territory now occupied by the city of Brooklyn, 

 but it was not until 1819 that race meetings of 

 any character were held in the vicinity of New 

 York. It was not until that year that the people 

 of Gotham seemed to take a lively interest in the 

 transactions of the turf. 



In the spring of 1 819 an association was formed 

 and a course established at Bath, Long Island. 

 But the location was not desirable, and in 182 1 

 the same association purchased a plot of ground 

 eight miles from where the Brooklyn City Hall 

 now stands and inaugurated it as the Union 

 Course. Large purses were offered for speed 

 contests, and racing was established on a respect- 

 able and firm basis. 



The Union Course stands more prominently 

 on the pages of American turf history than any 

 track now in existence, since it was the theatre of 

 some of the grandest turf battles ever decided on 

 American soil, and was the arena upon which were 

 held those memorable and incomparable contests 

 between the horses of the North and the South 

 in the subsequent years, after the North had be- 

 gun to produce its own race-horses. 



Just as the gentlemen of the Carolinas, Vir- 

 ginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania had given 



