THE TURF AND THE TROTTING HORSE. 533 



" Whalebone, by Hambletonian, trotted three miles in 8 m. 18 s. 

 These two, Sir Peter and Whalebone, can be matched either against 

 Rattler or Tom Thumb, now in England, for any amount." 



(Tom Thumb trotted, in England, 16.5 miles, in harness, in 56 

 m. 45 s., and 100 miles in 9 h. 30 m.) . 



" Screwdriver, by Mount Holly, he by Messenger, in a race with 

 Betsey Baker, trotted two three-mile heats in 8 m. 2 s., and 8 m. 

 10 s." 



This record of performances would be creditable to the trotting 

 horse in any year of his history. It illustrates the general char- 

 acter of all the trotting races of the early time. They were as 

 much a test of endurance as of speed, and were seldom of less 

 than two, and frequently of three and four miles. Races were 

 trotted in which the endurance of horses was taxed to the utter- 

 most, and the tasks most commonly imposed would render com- 

 pletely worthless one-half of the trotting horses of the present 

 day. Speed has been cultivated to the neglect of bottom, and 

 what has been gained in swiftness has been lost in staying power. 



In this respect, the course of trotting in America is analogous 

 to that of racing in England. The English racers of half a c*en- 

 tury ago partook of .the^ characteristic excellence of the Oriental 

 horses, from whom they were derived, which was that, in addi- 

 tion to their speed, they possessed extraordinary powers of endur- 

 ance. Such horses as Bay Middleton, Glencoe, Mameluke, The 

 Baron, Pyrrhus the First, Blair Athol, Wild Dayrell, Lanercost, 

 and Harkaway, and the mares Catherina, Beeswing, and Alice 

 Hawthorn, are not now found upon the English turf, and it is doubt- 

 ful if ever they will be found there again. An English writer on 

 the present condition of the turf says : " There is not a six-year- 

 old now in training in England to whom any of these four (Laner- 

 cost, Harkaway, Beeswing, and Alice Hawthorn) could not at the 

 same age have given a stone and a beating over the Beacon 

 Course." 



The " Turf Register" of March, 1834, copies from a Philadel- 

 phia paper the following comments on a race which took place at 

 Trenton, N. J., in which the horse Edwin Forrest trotted a mile 

 in 2 m. 36 s., and Columbus, in 2 m. 37 s. : " The improvement 

 of the trotting horse is engaging the attention of some of the best 

 sporting characters in the country. We believe our state boasts 

 of the best trotters in the Union. New York is nearly as good as 

 our own. It is, in our opinion, a sport which should be encou- 

 raged." 



The horses Edwin Forrest and Columbus were the best trotting 



horses of their time. The first trotted on Long Island, in 1834, 



a mile in 2 m. 31 s., which was then the best time ever made. 



He was afterward beaten by Daniel D. Tompkins, a New England 



. 45* 



