NOTED MAINE MOUSES. 



horses, who were all more or less distinguished for their per- 

 formances on the turf: Zaohary Taylor, Independence, Henry, 

 Tom Benton, Blanc Negre, Ice Pony, Lafayette, Lady Swan 

 Dying Sergeant, Sorrel Hiram, etc., aU of which were teed in 

 this State. 



In 1856, Flora Temple cut the record down to 2.24i, in a 

 race in harness, against Taconey, under saddle, in which she 

 distanced him in the first heat, in what Frank Forrester terms 

 the prodigious time of 2.24i. Here the record stood until 

 1S59, when she won a race against Princess, over the Eclipse 

 Course, L. I., in which the previous time was not only beaten 

 by two seconds and a half, but it was beaten in all the heats. 

 Mr. Woodruff says, "there had never been anything like such 

 a trot before." Flora won in three straight heats, in 2.23i, 

 2.22, 2.23J. 



The following September, at Cincinnati, Flora beat Ike 

 Cook in straight heats, the last of them being trotted in 2.21^. 

 Oct. 15, same year, at Kalamazoo, Mich., she won a race in 

 three heats, beating a horse called Honest Anse and Princess, 

 and capped the climax of her fame by winning the third heat 

 in the remarkable time of 2.19|. Since which the following 

 named horses have made a record of 2.20 or better, viz. : Gold- 

 smith Maid, American Girl, Lucy, Dexter, George Palmer, 

 Lady Thorn, Judge FuUerton, and Occident. 



With the increase of speed there has also been a propor- 

 tionate increase in the number of animals engaged, and in 

 the number of public corijbsts recorded. In 1856 there were 

 eleven heats trotted in 2.30, or less, while in 1871, there were 

 three hundred and eighteen. The whole number of public 

 contests recorded in 1871 was 1,685, representing over a mil- 

 lion of dollars in 'premiums and purses, besides the great 

 value of the horses. The horses would average $1000 each, 

 and not less than three to each race, which would be, say, 

 $5,000,000 in horses, alone who actually trotted in the 

 several races during that year. From this, and other reliable 



