VIU NOTED MAINE HOBSES. 



for the turf records of the country are full of their names and 

 achievements ; and the peculiar excellences of form and car- 

 ria^ of the "Drew," the "Eaton," the "Knox," and cfther 

 strains of blood, are quite as well known, and as spiritedly 

 -championed, by their respective admirers, in the maris, and 

 at the racing courses of Boston and New York, as on the 

 breeding farms and stables in Maine. 



I have thought it might be interesting to give an account 

 of the rise and progress of the sport of trotting, from the 

 commencement until the present time, showing the prom- 

 inent part taken from time to time by Maine bred horses: 



" The first time," I quote from Frank Forrester's " Horse of 

 America," " ever a horse trotted in public for a stake was in 

 1818, and that was against time for $1,000. The match was 

 proposed at a jockey club dinner, where trotting had come un- 

 der discussion, and tiie bet was that no horse could be pro* 

 duced which could trot a mile in three minutes. It was 

 accepted, and the horse named at the post was ' Boston Blue,' 

 who won cleverly, and gained great renown." , 



In 1819 Zuarrow, a chestnut gelding, was taken from Maine 

 to Massachusetts by O. B. Palmer, of Waterville, and trotted 

 a mile, "just across Charleston Bridge," in 2.57. 



The year 1825 brings us to what may be called the origin of 

 iauthorized trotting, as in it was established the New Tork 

 Club, got up with a view of improving the speed of road 

 horses, " by which means many horses whose speed was then 

 in obscurity, might be brought into notice, and consequently 

 their value enhanced." 



The first meeting was given " at the Club's course, near the 

 Jamaica Turnpike, Long Island," in May, 1826. The editor 

 of the American Farmer, after publishing the notice of 

 the above meeting, adds the following exhortation: "Why 

 are not clubs like the above formed in this vicinity? It would 

 afford an excellent test for the speed and value of harness 

 horses, as %hes tjiyf does for the race horse. Who will set it 

 argoing ?" 



