39^ The American Thoroughbred 



and the meetings at Sheepshead Bay were 

 stretched out to some length, so eager had the 

 Eastern population become for this most exhilar- 

 ating of outdoor sports. 



Brighton Beach, now one of the members of the 

 big metropolitan series, had been hastily con- 

 structed and a meeting given in 1879. That 

 meeting lasted a number of weeks and was suc- 

 cessful, and many were looking to Brighton 

 Beach as a possible successor of Jerome Park. 



The real genesis of the Coney Island Jockey 

 Club was an organization projected by Leonard 

 Jerome, J. G. K. Lawrence, and other gentlemen 

 interested in the thoroughbred ; and with hardly 

 any notice to the public, the Coney Island Jockey 

 Club gave a meeting in 1879 at the old Prospect 

 Park trotting track on the Boulevard, one mile 

 this side of Coney Island. The building of the 

 Sheepshead Bay track followed this success at 

 Prospect Park. 



The organization of the Coney Island Jockey 

 Club was one of the happy things which had oc- 

 curred for the race-horse of America. The Club 

 was projected by the ablest and most respectable 

 turfmen in the East, and was, and is still, sup- 

 ported by almost inexhaustible treasure. It came 



