THE TURF AND THE TROTTING HORSE. 529 



1823. He was a horse of great substance, of remarkable spirit, 

 and his career in England was marked by splendid achievements. 

 At three years old he trotted two miles in six minutes ; and when 

 four years old, ten miles in thirty minutes. Afterwards he trotted 

 over the Norfolk Course, seventeen and one-half miles, within an 

 hour, winning a purse of five hundred guineas. He gave muscle 

 and sinew to his progeny, and a Bellfounder cross appears in the 

 pedigrees of many fine trotting horses. 



There remain to be mentioned imported Trustee, and Sir 

 Henry; Duroc, by thorough-bred Diomed; Glencoe, by Sultan; 

 and the French horses Pilot and Royal George. These last horses 

 were only in part of the original Norman stock j but they had 

 enough of the blood to show it in their form, in the toughness of 

 their constitution, and in their bold trotting action. 



From the horses that have been here enumerated, all the 

 trotting horses and most of the road horses in the United States 

 have come. In the case of many trotting horses a pedigree cannot 

 be made out; but whenever one is fully ascertained, it invariably 

 establishes a connection with one or the other of them. An 

 excellent authority claims that no great trotter has been produced 

 whose pedigree, when traced for four generations, does not show 

 a connection with imported Messenger. 



This record proves the immense influence of a few good horses 

 upon the stock of a nation, and attests also the superior qualities 

 of the English racer. All the horses here mentioned are of the 

 Arabian and English thorough-bred stock, except the French 

 horses, and even they are known to have had a strong infusion of 

 the blood. From the vast hordes of wild horses which roamed 

 over the plains of Texas, Mexico, and South America, not a single 

 animal equal in size, speed, and enduring power to these English 

 horses and their direct descendants has ever been bred. 



The first public trotting race in America, of which there is any 

 record, took place in the year 1818. There had been for many 

 years previous a growing taste for driving the trotting horse, and 

 racing or running had been popular from the first settlement of 

 the country ; but it was not until that comparatively recent date 

 that the interest in trotting culminated in a public exhibition of it. 



The love of the horse is a part of the birthright of Americans, 

 as the offspring of a people who for centuries have been devoted 

 to the sports of the turf, and whose patriotism and pride have 

 co-operated with their love of pleasure in the cultivation and 

 improvement of a national stock. As early as the twelfth century 

 a regular race-course was established in London ; this being none 

 other than Smithfield. Fitzstephen, who lived at that period, 

 gives the following quaint account of the contests between the 

 palfreys of the day : " When a race is to 'be run by horses which 

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