THE HORSE-—INTRODUCTION, 23 
reach the three-quarter pole far in advance of the others, Lady Thorn being 
last. Thence home his speed would wane distressingly, but he would rally 
to a good position at the outcome, still in marked contrast to the terrific 
home-rush of Lady Thorn, the winner. He was not so in the early part 
of his career, it is said. His remarkable action has often been alluded to. 
While he trotted low and easy forward, he seemed to drag his hind legs, with- 
out drawing them under as in the case of his half-brother Dexter. He car- 
ried rather a low head. He was high at the croup and preserved some- 
what the Hambletonian model, as distinguished from the pacing angularity. 
The grand trotter Wilson (2:16) bids fair to make one of the first of 
the age. He is the best of the get of George Wilkes. 
George Wilkes’ record, 2:22, has been surpassed by only one entire 
son of Hambletonian, Jay Gould, whose dam was by American Star, and 
he need be mentioned only as having the purest and best balanced of trot- 
ting strokes, the poetry of motion. 
Dexter’s 2:171f remained the fastest record until 1871, when Gold- 
smith Maid lowered it one-fourth of a second at Milwaukee in a race with 
Lucy. She steadily decreased this until she trotted a heat in 2:14, which 
she was unable to excel. She was a bay, fifteen and a fourth hands high, 
of a wiry build and blood-like appearance, and wide, rakish hips that show 
the pacing incline. She had a slinging, loose way of moving, and when 
she became the nonpareil, she wculd intersperse her trotting with a few 
judicious breaks so cleverly taught as to almost escape detection. For 
severe service on the turf she has never been approached. . She trotted one 
hundred and twenty-one races and won $364,200. Prominent among her 
competitors were Lucy, Lady Thorn, from whom she could not wrest a heat, 
American Girl, Smuggler, Gloster and Rarus. Lucy wasa large bay mare by 
George M. Patchen, with a big lunging stride, fastest heat 2:181/. Lady 
‘Thorn has been described heretofore. American Girl, a bay mare without 
white, sixteen hands high or nearly (by Amos’ C. M. Clay, Jr.,) was a large- 
boned, powerful animal that scored 2:1614. Smuggler succeeded in getting 
one or two heats from the Maid, and scored 2:15¥, still the fastest stallion 
record. Smuggler is pacing-bred and a pacer himself naturally. His grand 
sire Cadmus was the sire of Pocahontas the pacer, 2:17% to wagon, the 
fastest on record. Gloster was a bay gelding, seventeen hands high, of the 
rarest promise, though it was cut short by death. Gloster was by Volun- 
teer. He was a grand trotting horse, of fine texture, with the pacing hip, and 
legs of the finest character. While he was moving one could detect a 
slight nod. He jogged peculiarly slowly, but this need not have signified 
any lameness at all, as it is not uncommon among trotters. 
Rarus succeeded in wresting her proud title from Goldsmith Maid, and 
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