292 The American Thoroughbred 



at this four-mile distance that it seemed hazard- 

 ous to predict that he could ever be faster than 

 that in any land. Still the gentle people on 

 the old side of Canal Street maintained that 

 Lexington had established the mark, and that 

 perhaps never again would there be found horse 

 who could do such a thing as this. 



And then, looking at their extravagances of 

 opinion fifty years after, and looking at the four- 

 mile record as it stands to-day, one cannot help 

 wondering whether we have improved the race- 

 horse or merely improved the track upon which 

 he runs and our system of training. Yet, at that, 

 when four-mile racing was not the rarity that it is 

 now, and there was much racing at this honorable 

 distance, it required almost twenty years of time 

 to better that gallop of Lexington's on the old 

 Metairie Course. 



It was Fellowcraft, scion of the same house, 

 who finally did it. And then, since Fellowcraft's 

 time, away out yonder in California, they have 

 been steadily chopping, chopping, chopping the 

 notches, until now, when we look at the turf re- 

 cord, we see that the four-mile mark is 7.1 1, and 

 it is credited to Lucretia Borgia, a four-year-old, 

 with 85 pounds up. Also, you note that The 



