420 APPENDIX. 



20is. Four days prior to this race Lady Thorn had been beaten 

 at Saratoga by Mountain Boy, in wretched time, for them, and 

 when the three mares appeared at Prospect Park, it was about two 

 to one in the betting on Goldsmith Maid against the field. And 

 yet it was in truth " a horse to a hen" on Lady Thorn, for she 

 won the third heat, the fastest, by four or five lengths without any 

 trouble at all. 



The fastest race that Lady Thorn ever trotted was at Narragan- 

 sett Park, Rhode Island. That beautiful and speedy course was 

 constructed after she had come upon the turf, and she is the mis- 

 tress of the best time that has yet 'been made upon it. It was 

 against George Palmer, Goldsmith ■ Maid, Lucy, and American 

 Girl, and Palmer also made his best time in the race. It came off 

 on the 8th of October 1869, just a week after the same horses, 

 save Lucy, had trotted at Mystic Park, Boston. Lady Thorn won 

 there in three heats— 2.201, 2.20^, 2.20; Goldsmith Maid got 

 second money for being second in the third heat, though if the 

 present rules had existed then, George Palmer would have re- 

 ceived it, for he was second the first two heats. In the race at 

 Narragansett Park he was second by reason of winning the third 

 heat in 2m. 19 Js., and this will be the time to give a brief descrip- 

 tion of liim. He is a bay gelding, small, narrow, and light in the 

 bone, and very few at first sight would deem it likely that he was 

 as fast and enduring as many good races have shown him to be. 

 He was unfortunate in being almost always confronted on the 

 course by three out of the four mighty mares of this present day, 

 viz.. Lady Thorn, Goldsmith Maid, American Girl, and Lucy. It 

 is believed that he was got by a horse called Lame Bogus, but his 

 pedigree and early history are clouded by uncertainty, and I have 

 heard several contradictory accounts concerning him. He be- 

 longed during the brightest part of his career, and still belongs, to 

 Mr. Brastus Corning, of Albany, a wealthy and eminent gentle- 

 man. In the race at Narragansett Park Lady Thorn was in very 

 fine condition. Her races that fall had done her good. Like al- 



