282 The American Thoroughbred 



Second Heat 



Time of first mile 2.02 



Time of second mile .... 1.58 



Time of third mile 1.46 



Time of fourth mile . . . . 1.52I 



Time of second heat . . . 7.38I 



Although Lexington started in the name of 

 A. L. Bingaman, he was owned and controlled 

 by Richard Ten Broeck, the man who took the 

 first American horses to England to try con- 

 clusions over there. Ten Broeck was a sports- 

 man of the highest class, and the defeat of 

 Lexington in the Jockey Club Purse w^as so ua- 

 satisfactory to him, and the continued reference 

 to Lecompte's running of four miles in 7.26 so 

 irritated him, that he issued a challenge to run 

 Lexington a single four miles over the Metairie 

 Course against 7.26 for $10,000 a side, the race 

 to be run between the ist and 15th of the follow- 

 ing April, that is to say, 1855. The exact terms 

 of Ten Broeck's famous challenge were these : — 

 " As Lexington will probably follow the fashion 

 in making a foreign tour, I propose the following 

 as his valedictory : I will run him a single four 

 miles over the Metairie Course, under the rules 



