CHAPTER XXII 



THE RACING OF TO-DAY 



Swinging into 1880, the racing system had 

 already undergone a marked change. It was 

 then a foregone conclusion that Jerome Park must 

 inevitably pass out of existence because of the 

 march of civic progress in that direction, which 

 rendered its ground too valuable to be reserved 

 for racing purposes. And so the gentlemen of 

 the city who wished to maintain the high stand- 

 ard which Jerome Park had created began to cast 

 about for a new racing home. They found one 

 down on the old, time-honored flats of Long 

 Island, and there they built a course and named 

 it Sheepshead Bay. 



Then the now famous Coney Island Jockey 

 Club was born, and it might be said that there 

 was another era in the story of the American 

 horse. He became more popular than ever, and, 

 though he was not now asked to race at such 

 long distances, he was asked to do more racing, 

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