PREFACE 



For a decade more than the three score years and ten 

 allotted by a gracious Providence to man I have been awaiting 

 the solemn call which comes to all human kind to weigh in, 

 and then to the great Steward make account of the use to 

 which I put the opportunities that came to me. 



In the active competition of life, when rivalries were 

 keen, when ambitions created new fields and contests kept 

 alert both mind and body, there was little time, indeed, to do 

 more than merely store away in unclassified groups in 

 memory events and incidents each one deserving of a sep- 

 arate chapter. To write a history of the American turf had 

 long been a cherished project, but each day of a life of 

 practically unremitting and exacting labor interfered until 

 the westering sun of my eightieth year warns me that I must 

 be up and doing if I would achieve my cherished ambition 

 and leave behind me something which I trust will be worthy 

 tribute to the best and the noblest sport that it is given to 

 man to enjoy. 



If in the chapters which are to come there should be 

 noted a tone of enthusiastic optimism, let the reader realize 

 that sixty-five years of my life were spent in the activities of 

 the turf as a jockey, a trainer and an owner ; that I have 

 seen, and in many of them personally participated, practically 

 all of the great contests which gave fame to our thorough- 

 breds ; that I have traveled on foot through valleys and over 

 mountains, when but rough paths pointed the way between 

 places now drawn close together by the bands of great trunk 

 line railroads, leading the horse that was on conquest bent ; 

 that I spent weary weeks on journeys that now would be but 

 the occupation of one brief day of luxurious travel ; that I 

 have seen the upward and the onward progress which has 

 marked the rise of the thoroughbred in America from a 

 little meet in some isolated though sport-loving place to the 

 magnificent seasons of Belmont Park. 



No optimism of my earliest and most enthusiastic days 

 could have possibly created for me a grander vista than that 



