330 The American Tboroiigbbred 



discretion in breeding had built them up into a 

 magnificent type. But that element which re- 

 gards a race-horse as a gambling instrument 

 pure and simple had almost got in control of 

 racing, especially in the East where the best 

 racing should have been conducted. 



It was when Jerome Park was opened, in 1866, 

 that practically a new era was begun, and we 

 saw for the first time in the vicinity of New York 

 courses crowded with the wealth and aristocracy 

 and fashion of the city. 



This course at Fordham was fitted up with all 

 the elegances that wealth could purchase, and 

 there is not in existence a track to-day which 

 is so beautiful to the eye as Jerome Park was. 



Nor do we yet have race meetings where the 

 sport itself is conducted upon a higher plane, 

 or at which horses run grander races, than 

 they did over the irregular-shaped pieces of 

 ground at Fordham. The rough element who 

 had made the tracks about New York unpopu- 

 lar for the last ten or fifteen years w^ere kept 

 completely in subjection, and Dame Fashion 

 flaunted her skirts on the bright Jerome after- 

 noons without fear. 



The most distinguished men in the country 



