American Live Stock. 
447 
fact must remain with only a general remark of its truth. ^Yhether 
the thoroughbred horse in the United States has been kept up to 
the standard of excellence at which he has arrived in Eno-land. 
or improved beyond him, an instance or two may determine. I 
have been unable to learn the best running time of the race-horse 
in England, and therefore a current comparison between the speed 
of the American and English horse cannot be made. 
In the great national four-mile race of three heats, on Long 
Island, N. Y., in the year 1823, between the stallions American 
Eclipse, bred on Long Island, N. Y., and Henr 3 *, bred in Virginia, 
the first heat was taken by Henry, by a head only, in 7 minutes 37^- 
seconds. The other two heats were taken by Eclipse in 7 minutes 
^ 49 seconds and 8 minutes 14 seconds, yet it was never exactly 
known what was the very best time Eclipse could make, only when 
matched with a nearly equal competitor, as he was called a lazy 
horse, and bore the whip freely. 
The Kentucky-bred stallion, Lexington, on the New Orleans 
four-mile course, in the year 1854, won his race in 7 minutes 19:| 
seconds. 
Fellowcraft, also a Kentucky-bred stallion, won a race on the 
four-mile course at Saratoga, in the year 1874, in 7 minutes 19^ 
seconds. These are the two shortest races ever made, so far as rec¬ 
ords are given, thus leaving the American thoroughbred the peer 
of any others in the world.* 
We may well suppose that the superiority of the thoroughbred 
horse in the combinations of speed, action, wind, bottom and fine¬ 
ness of proportions has been fully determined, and that an infusion 
of his blood would be sought and worked into a large class of our 
miscellaneously-bred horses for other purposes than the race-course, 
or simply the gratification of taste and pleasure. Among the most 
notable class of the thoroughbred crosses upon the better ones of 
miscellaneous character is 
'I'he American Trotter^ which we claim as solely an American 
production, within the last forty years, in the highest development 
of his speed. 
A detailed history of the trotter would require many pages, for 
which no time can here be allotted, and the horse literature of the 
* Since the above eenience was written, the h< rse Tenbroeck made a race at Loaieville, Ky., 
in 7 minutes 159i seconds, beating Fellowcraft 3?^ seconds. — L. F. A. 
