When Boston's Best Sons Met 275 



ing community had been built up about the old 

 Southern city. 



On a plantation on Red River, Lecompte was 

 owned by Thomas D. Wells. Lecompte was sired 

 by Boston out of Reel by imported Glencoe. 

 Lexington was sired by Boston out of Alice Car- 

 neal by imported Sarpedon. In 1854 these two 

 horses were so far and away the best animals in 

 training in America that their coming together 

 in contest at New Orleans was an event of na- 

 tional importance and which horsemen still living 

 discuss with fervor. Lecompte was a chestnut 

 and Lexington a bay. Lecompte had done all of 

 his racing in Mississippi and Louisiana. Lexing- 

 ton had shown his form in Kentucky, It was 

 conceded that in the North there was no horse fit 

 to meet Lexington, and that in the extreme South 

 there was none with the capacity to give Lecompte 

 a race. 



So when, on an April day in 1854, the two sons 

 of " Old White-nose " met at four-mile heats, in 

 the Great State Post Stakes, it is no wonder that 

 the city of New Orleans was packed to its enter- 

 taining capacity by the crowds that had come 

 from the most remote parts of the United States 

 to see this duel. 



