THE TBOTTINQ-IIORSE OF AMERICA. 227 



hdats under saddle, the odds were a hundred to sixty on the 

 Chief at the start. But the mare went away, and distanced 

 him in 5m. 6s. ; winning the race with very great ease. 

 Sufifolk had now done a good deal of work, and had been on 

 the whole very successful. Early in the fall, the great 

 match of the year came off on the Centreville Course. It 

 was five-mile heats to wagons, for $5,500. Bryant drove 

 his mare, and George Spicer did the like for Americus. 

 Tho betting at the start was a hundred to seventy on 

 Americus. It was the greatest betting-race we had had 

 for some time; and the gelding fully justified the good 

 opinion of those who laid odds on him. He won the first 

 heat with ease in 13m. 54s. ; the fastest mile being the 

 fifth, in 2m. 40^s. It was now " a horse to a hen " on the 

 gelding. In the second heat he again beat her easily in 

 13m. 58^s. ; the best mile being the fifth, 2m. 44s. This 

 closed the performances of 1841 : in which year she had 

 trotted two races of mile heats, six heats ; four races of 

 two-mile heats, ten heats; two races of three-mile heats, 

 six heats ; and one race of five-mile heats, two heats. 



In 1842 the mare began at the Beacon, on the 7th of 

 May, two-mile heats in harness, against Eipton and Confi- 

 dence. The white-legged gelding won it in 6m. lO^s., 5m. 

 12Js. Three days afterwards at the Centreville, it being 

 the day that Boston and Fashion ran, Suffolk turned the 

 tables on Ripton. It was the " ladies', day " all round at 

 both courses, and the mares won. Suffolk beat Ripton in 

 6m. 10s., 5m. 16s. I have always had a notion that Ripton 

 was defeated that day, not because the mare was too good 

 for him, but by reason of something I afterwards learned, 

 not necessary to be mentioned here. I drove the little 

 horse myself. At the Hunting-park Course, on the last 

 day of that month, they met again, two-mile heats in har- 

 ness ; and he beat her in three heats, she winning the second. 

 In the first, as I have related in giving his history, Ripton 

 made the best two-mile time in harness then on record, — 5m. 



