IVbaf a Thorougbhred Mare may do i8i 



Black Maria. She beat Black Maria cleverly. 

 Again, within two weeks of that race, Black Maria 

 met Mark Richards and Splendid, and beat them 

 at four-mile heats, winning her heats straight. 



The following autumn, in 1831, she won one 

 heat in three of a four-mile race with a horse 

 called James Cropper. The mare was so plainly 

 amiss for it that Cropper was made favorite. But 

 at that, such was her dogged courage, she lost 

 the deciding heat by a throat-latch only, and 

 would have won in another stride. 



Going down to Baltimore three weeks after 

 that, she went to the starter again in a four-mile- 

 heat race that took three heats for decision. 

 That was all over a horse race, for, besides Black 

 Maria, there were Collier, Virginia Taylor, James 

 Cropper, Busirus, and Eliza Riley in the race. 

 Run at Baltimore, afterward the scene of some 

 of the grandest sports in this country, the race 

 brought lovers of thoroughbreds from ten days' 

 journey to the South and five days' riding from 

 the North. It was a vast crowd that came to the 

 race-course that afternoon. The affair was marked 

 also as being the first meeting of the Maryland 

 Jockey Club, and splendid was the day and the 

 circumstances of it. 



