402 The American Thoroughbred 



over a series of years, always prominent, and as 

 favorably known, both as a turfman and a gentle- 

 man, as any one on the continent, was elected 

 president. John G. Heckscher was treasurer, 

 Captain J. H. Coster was clerk of the course, and 

 J. G. K. Lawrence, to whom we owe the existence 

 of some of the best stake events on the American 

 turf, was secretary. 



Looking over those names, one can have an 

 idea into what care the American race-horse had 

 come in this year of 1880, when the turf of the 

 present and the horse of the present were having 

 birth. 



On that first day at Sheepshead Bay Luke 

 Blackburn, then a three-year-old, won his Tidal 

 Stakes, and Spinaway won her Foam Stakes, for 

 two-year-olds. These were the first of that long 

 list of stake-winners which have become famous 

 through their performances in contest at Sheeps- 

 head Bay, those performers which have been 

 Suburban and Futurity and Realization winners. 



In 1 88 1 Hindoo, then in the colors of the 

 Dwyer Brothers, began to show that magnificent 

 quality which was his and which has been des- 

 canted upon at length in another chapter. It was 

 he who gave evidence of his three-year-old ex- 



