The American turf, history of the thoroughbred, together with personal reminiscences by the author, who, in turn, has been jockey, trainer and owner

Preface

For a decade more than the three score years and ten allotted by a gracious Providence to man I have been awaiting the solemn call which comes to all human kind to weigh in, and then to the great Steward make account of the use to which I put the opportunities that came to me.

In the active competition of life, when rivalries were keen, when ambitions created new fields and contests kept alert both mind and body, there was little time, indeed, to do more than merely store away in unclassified groups in memory events and incidents each one deserving of a separate chapter. To write a history of the American turf had long been a cherished project, but each day of a life of practically unremitting and exacting labor interfered until the westering sun of my eightieth year warns me that I must be up and doing if I would achieve my cherished ambition and leave behind me something which I trust will be worthy tribute to the best and the noblest sport that it is given to man to enjoy.

If in the chapters which are to come there should be noted a tone of enthusiastic optimism, let the reader realize that sixty-five years of my life were spent in the activities of the turf as a jockey, a trainer and an owner; that I have seen, and in many of them personally participated, practically all of the great contests which gave fame to our thoroughbreds ; that I have traveled on foot through valleys and over mountains, when but rough paths pointed the way between places now drawn close together by the bands of great trunk line railroads, leading the horse that was on conquest bent ; that I spent weary weeks on journeys that now would be but the occupation of one brief day of luxurious travel ; that I have seen the upward and the onward progress which has marked the rise of the thoroughbred in America from a little meet in some isolated though sport-loving place to the magnificent seasons of Belmont Park.

No optimism of my earliest and most enthusiastic days could have possibly created for me a grander vista than that which in reality has come. No dream that I might have had more than a half century ago could have conjured up the multitude that on last Decoration Day I saw pass through the gates of the vastest and the best appointed race course in the world. No fancy of the years gone by could have pictured the popularity of the sport which has so entwined itself about the American thoroughbred. A long cry truly from famed old Governor Gary's Lane, where our own Washington of ever blessed memory presided and where he raced his own horse Magnolia, to the great courses which now cater to the scores of thousands who pay their devoirs to our noble horse.

Nor do I believe that we yet have reached our highest in the sport. It is better conserved to-day, it has a more popular patronage, it is better regulated than ever before. It is difficult to maintain one's poise and listen to the croakings of those who allege they fear disaster and already can discern ruin. Racing has had its dark days, as what sport or what man or what nation has not, and it may continue so to have at uncertain periods. But I have been in it a lifetime longer than it has been the good fortune of many to enjoy, and I have seen its good name assailed, and its patrons criticised, and attempts made to thwart its progress; but ever and always it has come out of its difficulties better and stronger than it was.

And it did so because of the love of contest which is characteristic of the American people. The American citizen is essentially a man who glories in struggles for supremacy; whether it be man or horse that battles, his sympathies are at once enlisted and aroused. The red blood that courses in his veins — the blood that has built nations and that has made of empires republics — the blood that to-day dominates the world — is quickened by the sight of contest. It glories in the battles of the thoroughbred, whose blood is uncontaminated and whose life is conquest. Tell me not that the day will ever come when the American citizen will look with either disfavor or indifference on a field of thoroughbreds. Tell me not that there is anywhere a scene so inspiriting as two horses locked in struggle, neither flinching and neither yielding, their veins in tension standing out like whipcords on their silken sides, their eyes aflame with interest, their nostrils distended with excitement, giving up their best effort out of exclusively a natural desire to conquer. No prizes for them if they win ; no fortunes go with the victory ; winner or loser they go back to the stalls, conqueror and vanquished treated alike — the only sport in the world where two combatants struggle with all their might without individual glory save the appreciation in which the public holds them.

But I am digressing and discussing an impossible condition instead of confining myself to a word as to the progress of the sport — a sport which is at once a great and an important industry and a most popular recreation. In our early days it was but natural that it should hold a minor place, for the molding of a nation was work that compelled man's best effort and man's whole time. But no sooner had the country put on its swaddling clothes than the thoroughbred was imported, and every year since then it has grown and has gathered popularity until it stands at the very top of all our recreations.

Later in this book it will be my privilege to discuss this growth and the reasons therefor and also to point out the great practical value of the thoroughbred blood in improving the breed of horses. The Jockey Club — the governing body of the turf in the East — has inaugurated a Bureau of Breeding, which will do much to illustrate this to the public of the Empire State, and I have reason to believe that our National Government, through the Department of Agriculture, may move along a similar line.

Before concluding this introduction I desire to say that for the inspiration for this book I am indebted to that princely sportsman, the late Leonard W. Jerome. Sitting on the veranda of the old club house at Jerome Park one autumn evening after the races, Mr. Jerome and his friend, the elder August Belmont, than whom no better friend the turf ever had, were speaking of the deplorable fact that the only records of the turf up to that time were in the fugitive form of newspaper articles. I chanced along and Mr. Jerome urged that I take up the work. To him, therefore, I am indebted for the inspiration of this book, and to him and to my best and truest friend, George C. Bennett, of Memphis, this work is dedicated by

THE AUTHOR.

Index

PAGE

Preface 5

Story of Godolphin 1 1

Our Early Racing i6

Some Great Races 26

Origin of Steeplechasing 38

The Strain of Blood.. 4^

How I Became a Turfman — 47

Won Every Stake --- 54

Harry Gilmour's Victory 63

My Recollections - - - 69

Home of the Racer_ _ , 74

Why They Won 80

How to Ride 85

How to Breed - 92

How to Buy a Horse 97

The Noted Jockeys and Trainers 102

The Greatest Plungers 108

Waning of the Gray 115

Tales of the Turf 121

Men I Have Met -- 126

Some Noted Ringers 152

Training for a Race 158

How to Treat a Horse 163

The Track Records i75

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN TURF.

CHAPTER L

The Story of Godolphin, the Arabian.

While America is not the birthplace of racing and is not the country that first saw the merits of the thoroughbred horse, she now has the proud distinction of having been the country that encouraged the sport and brought it up to its present high standing.

From the insignificant beginning, when the Dutch traders and burghers first raced their Flemish ponies about New Amsterdam, racing has grown to almost colossal proportions. The whole country is honeycombed with race tracks of the very grandest character, and there is not a state in the Union but has some kind of a course. If running is not promoted, the trotting interests are appreciated.

Probably the first racing ever held was on the broad deserts of Arabia, where the turbaned disciple of Mahomet scampered about on his steed and challenged his neighbors to a contest of speed. If there were any regular races, however, there is no record of them, but the fame of the Arabian steed was known as early as the beginning of the Christian era.

It remained for France and England to introduce racing and the features that have grown about it. Of course, there were races during the time the Romans were ruled by the Caesars and even previous to that, but there was nothing of an organized nature and horses were not trained especially for the purpose. France seems to have had the first blooded horse of which there is any record. The Byerly Turk was taken there from Turkey in 1620, but it was long years after that before there was what could be termed racing.

There were some men in England who made pretensions to scientific breeding, yet they knew but little compared with what is known now. Several Arabian horses were imported and they begat a sterling race when bred to the gentle mares of the British isles. Among the earliest of these importations was a celebrated stallion known as Barley's Arabian, whose blood is yet to be found in the horses of this country and England and they are winning races day after day.

But the grandest of these Arabians, in my opinion, was Godolphin Arabian, and, in this connection, a pretty little story regarding the discovery of this wonderful animal occurs to me. I heard it when a boy. The pasha of Arabia desired to bestow a compliment on the king of France and he sent him a number of beautiful Arabian kings and queens of the desert. Among them was one of especial symmetry, but the French had lately been involved in a war and their thoughts were far from racing and such matters. Their entire attention was fixed on how to recover from the ravages of the war. In consequence, the Arabian horses were neglected. Finally the king ordered his grooms to sell the horses for anything they would bring.

The animals fell into the hands of traders and common people, who gave them no care, and gradually they declined until the horse in question drifted into the hands of a man who had a cart and hauled goods about the city of Paris. With every one of these horses sent to the king the pasha sent the groom that had had him in charge since he was foaled, and there was one poor fellow who had cared for this steed. He followed the carter about day after day, saw his beloved horse become blind, shaggy and ill looking, and his heart was touched to the very core.

But one day there came a change. A gentle Quaker was passing through the streets with his daughter and they saw the carter beating the Arabian horse mercilessly. The girl's sympathetic heart was touched, and she persuaded her father to purchase the poor animal and get it out of the hands of the cruel driver. The Quaker paid over the money and stood wondering what he was going to do with the horse.

At this juncture the Arabian groom approached and in a respectful manner told the story of the horse. He told of his love for the exile from the deserts of the spice-laden Araby the Happy and pleaded to be engaged to care for him. The daughter again interfered, and, woman like, she had her way. Soon the groom and the horse were comfortt3

ably installed in the stable ot the Quaker. With kind treatment and plenty to eat the horse began to round out and once more the graceful lines of symmetry were perceptible. Time passed and the cast-off Arabian horse became the most beautiful creature in that part of the city.

The Quaker's daughter went from time to time to see the horse and listen to the praises of the groom. Finally she became so impressed with the animal that she used him as her saddle horse. But all this time the spark of fire in the blood of the horse was being slowly revived, for all the cruel treatment he had received had not quite extinguished it. One day he was feeling particularly frisky and he threw his fair rider and badly injured her. This so enraged the Quaker that he had the groom thrown into prison.

The mother of Lord Godolphin, a celebrated English noble, was visiting in Paris, and, being a very charitable woman, she went with a number of other ladies to visit the prison. There she saw the poor Arab and listened pityingly to his story. Afterward she made an investigation and found that he had told her the exact truth. She saw the man again and he persuaded her to buy the horse from the Quaker. Then she sent both the horse and the groom to her son in England.

The groom knew so much about horses that he was placed in charge of the stables of his new master, and, while acting in this capacity, occurred the incident that caused his temporary downfall. On the stock farm was Roxanna, by the Ball Galloway, a great mare of the day, and the lord desired to breed her to Hobgoblin, a grand stallion he owned; but the mare would have nothing to do with the English stallion and seemed to care for no horse save the despised blind Arab. The groom thought there was no horse like the one from his own deserts and he permitted the mare to go into the embrace of the Arabian.

When Lord Godolphin learned of what had been done he was so enraged that he banished both the horse and the groom to a barren estate in Scotland. There the Arab built a small stone hut to shelter himself and the horse. For two years they lived there, and the Arab worked and procured food for both of them.

In course of time the mare delivered a foal. It was a delicate little creature, but every day he grew more and more beautiful. There were no such lithe and sinewy limbs on any of the yearlings of the stable. There was no such gracefulness in every movement, and the attention of everybody was directed toward the offspring of the despised Arabian sire. At length he was trained and put into a race. His owner thought he was a beautiful creature, but he had no great hopes for him. But when he ran away from every thing in the race and won from the best stock of old England he became deeply interested. Race after race was won, and there soon came a time when this colt was considered the mightiest race horse that ever looked through a bridle. His name was Lath and his fame was widespread. Inquiries as to his breeding began to be made.

Then, for the first time, it occurred to Lord Godolphin that he had on his barren estate in Scotland probably the greatest sire ever known. He sent a special ambulance by a long and tortuous route into the Highlands, where the faithful groom and his charge were quartered, and they returned to the castle of the Godolphins in almost regal splendor. After that Godolphin the Arabian grew and increased in fame until a horse that did not have a strain of his blood in him was not considered a race horse at all. He so far overshadowed the other Arabians of his time that they became considered but of mediocre quality.

The blood of this mighty horse courses through the veins of all the best stock of America to-day and is the purest of the line that leads to the purple. One might go over the pedigrees of all the horses that are gaining distinction on the turf to-day and find that they finally lead back to the blind steed of the desert. He combined speed, endurance and gentleness in his makeup, all the essential points in a first-class thoroughbred.

The sportsmen of America were quick to see that this was a great horse, and it was not long until several of his sons and daughters found their way across the ocean and were quartered in the stables of the planters of the New World. Here they thrived and produced a race that inherited all the best traits of the illustrious sire.

The Byerly Turk was taken from France to England in about 1688 and was the founder of the famous Herod line.

The horse became the property of Sir Georg-e Byerly and was his charger during the battle of the Boyne. When the war was over Sir George took him back to England and placed him at the head of his breeding establishment. This is the line carefully traced : The Byerly Turk sired Jig, the latter Tartar, and then followed Partner, who sired Herod.

Selim was the sire of the Matchem line and was also owned in England. These three lines are the most famous the world has ever known, and all the great horses in Europe and America contain these crosses. Diomed, the winner of the first English Derby in 1780, had all three of the strains. Sir Archie (the American Godolphin), whom I regard as one of the greatest horses ever bred in America, was a son of Diomed. This horse sired Florizel; Florizel is the sire of the dam of Boston, and Boston sired Lexington, which shows in a few words the excellence of his blood.

However, this is a slight deviation. Old England, the mother of racing, had its grand race courses, its fine breeding establishments and its owners whose wealth justified them in indulging in the sport. They were true sportsmen, and there is nothing they would not have done to have improved upon the Arabian blood, had they but known how to have gone about it. But they soon had rivals in America.

The men of the New World began to study the science of breeding. They mated the Arabian stock to mares judiciously and made up for the defects of the latter in the virtues of the former. The result was that the class of the stock gradually increased and became better and better. Year after year saw an improvement in the American horses. The best men in the country became identified with breeding and they gave it the most careful attention.

But the Americans were not content with taking the best of the English sires. They invaded France and Austria, and finally imported a few Arabs themselves. In every instance they succeeded by their judicious management. Racing in the new world grew and flourished. Tracks were built at first like those in the old country, but then the Americans devised a plan by which the race at all its stages might be witnessed by the people and by which the horses would never be out of the sight of the man who had come to see the race. They built the first circular tracks and continned to improve upon them.

CHAPTER II. Our Early Racing

From the very arrival of the first thorougbred in this country racing became popular. It was the chief recreation of the leisure class, and, though that class was exceedingly small in number, it was thoroughly enthusiastic, and, perhaps naturally, because of its smallness, contests took on the character of quasi-sectional rivalries. It was the North against the South, or Virginia against Maryland, or New York against South Carolina, and so on, for, as I have said, men who had the wealth and the leisure to indulge in this most fascinating of sports were few and far between in those days when our country was in that transition stage from a colony to a nation.

Up until within approximately a dozen years of the War of Independence there was no regularly constituted race track worthy even of those days. In 1763, for example, we find the celebrated horse Selim meeting and beating Dr. Hamilton's imported horse Dove and others at four miles, two miles out on the main road between Annapolis and Baltimore and return. Maryland always was a splendid racing colony, and letters in private collections tell of the great crowds that had gathered for the contest, traveling by horseback in some instances a week's journey to be present at the race.

In 1764 Selim again won a purse at Philadelphia, and about a year later beat True Britton over a regularly organized course at four miles and repeat in a match. In the October of 1767 he won a purse of 100 guineas at the same place, distancing three others. His superiority was so unchallenged that it was not an uncommon thing to find him barred. It was not until 1768 that he met his first defeat, his conqueror being the imported horse Figure.

In this connection it is pertinent to call attention to the fact that the worthy, time-honored course at Charleston, S. C, was the oldest well-organized course in the United States. It was not inaugurated until February 15, 1792, or nearly a quarter of a century after some had their existence in Pennsylvania. Let no reader misunderstand me ; I pay reverent homage to the gentlemen sportsmen of the Palmetto State, but inexorable history gives the laurel for the establishment of organized courses in this country to the State of the gentle Quaker. More's the pity that in the years which followed the great commonwealth of William Penn permitted itself to be outstripped in the race for eminence in this noblest of all our sports.

It may be of interest to give a list of all the horses, especially the Arabians, imported into the United States before the Revolution. Accidentally omitted is Lindsey's Arabian, the only and first Arabian, ever imported into America up to or prior to the War of Independence. He was a gray, and commonly called " Lindsey's Arabian." He was landed in Connecticut in 1766, and was then four years old. His stock proved to be valuable, and many of his get were employed as cavalry horses in the army of the United States.

In the stud he was successful. He was the sire of General George Washington's Magnolia, Mr. Edelin's Tulip, Dr. Marshall's Hyder Ally, as well as a black horse belonging to Notly Young, and a gray which later found his way to Winchester, Virginia. In connection herewith, I recount a list of Arabians and Barbs which have been brought into the United States since the Revolution.

A horse and mare sent as a present by the^Bey of Tunis through his Ambassador, Meli Melle, to Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States ; pedigree unknown.

Arab Barb, a black, imported by Colonel Lear. He was large and strong, well proportioned, but not handsome. He was said to be sire of the dam of Fairfax.

Bagdad, purchased by George Barkly, Esq., of New York, from Hassana De Gris, Minister to England from Tripoli, who imported him into England as a horse of pure Arabian blood. He was afterwards purchased by a company in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1823.

Ballasteros, an Arabain, dark brown, who had been the property of Ferdinand, King of Spain. When the French army got possession of Madrid the stud belonging to the King of Spain was taken by the Spanish nobles, carried to Cadiz, and there sold. There Ballasteros became the property of R. S. Hackley, our consul at that place, who afterwards disposed of him to Captain Sin<:j;leton, of Philadelphia, who sold him to Thomas Guy, of Richmond (Broad Rock Co.), Va., in 1816.

Busora, an Arabian, imported in 1820 by the Messrs. Ogden, of New York,

The Jones, Arabian, foaled in 1820, a dapple gray, black legs, mane and tail, 15 hands high. He was purchased by Major Smith, an American consul at Tunis, who sold him to Commodore Jones, and by him was imported into this country in 1824. This horse ran at Gibraltar and performed well.

Selim, an Arabian gray, presented by the Murad Bey to General Sir R. Abercrombie. After the General's death he became the property of Commodore Barron, who afterwards sold him to go to Kentucky.

Winter's Arabian was captured as a yearling during the war of 1814 by the privateer Grampass, of Baltimore, Maryland. He was on board the brig Doris, one of His Majest)^'s transports, on her passage from Senegal to Portsmouth, England, and was intended as a present to the then Prince Regent, afterwards George the Fourth. The horse was sold, and purchased by E. J. Winter, member of Congress from New York. He was 14 hands i inch high. This horse crossed well with most of the Kentucky mares in his time.

John M. Clay's Rally, by imported Trustee. The dam of that good horse, Gerome Edger, was out of a Winter's Arab mare. She was also dam of Mat Davis and other good horses. Quite a number of his get were trained and performed well.

These are the principal Arabs and Barbs that came to this country prior to the date of the Independence and long subsequent to the same period. An important consignment came in the more recent )'ears through the enterprise of that public-spirited gentleman, Mr. A. K. Richards, of Georgetown, Scott Co., Kentucky. Though well selected, they most signally failed to cross well with our best American brood marcs. The best of their get was Transylvania, out of the famous mare P^Tytonfa, by Glencoe, who became famous when she beat the great Northern ideal. Fashion, four-mile heats, in a match for $20,000 a side, over the Union Course, Long Island, New York. While on this subject it may prove interesting to modern readers of turf matters of the past that I should recur to the origin of the conflicts of the turf between the North and South, which were more protracted than the Trojan War, though they were conducted in a manner highly honorable to'all parties emulous not only to excel on the turf, but in the promotion of that good feeling best calculated to cement more strongly the bonds of our Union, as follows :

During the autumn campaign of 1823 Sir Charles, then six years old, having beaten all competitors in several races, a challenge was injudiciously made in the public j)ress to run him against Eclipse, four-mile heats, the following May, on the Union Course, Long Island, or any Southern course, four-mile heats, for $5,000 or $10,000 a side, as might be preferred by Eclipse.

Eclipse was eight years old and had run but one race that season. The challenge was accepted and the larger sum named as most consonant with the fame of the two cham pions. Sir Charles proving amiss, half forfeit was paid, though in his unpromising situation a match on the spot was made to run them forthwith a dash of four miles for $15,000 a side. At the end of two miles Sir Charles broke down and Eclipse won almost without a contest.

Confidence now to the fullest extent being reposed in him, a match was made by John Stevens, of New York, with Col. Wm. R. Johnson, of Virginia, to run Eclipse four-mile heats the following May on the same Union Course against any competitor to be produced at the starting post for $20,000 a side, the rules of the Union Course to govern, which, from the relative weights, were known to be more unfavorable to young horses over the Northern tracks than the regular tracks of the South.

All others had then trained off in Virginia, partly from the severe mode of running three-year-olds, but in some measure as characteristic of her fashionable stock, at which time all horses dated their age from the first of May.

Thus, a horse foaled any time in the year 1819 would be considered four years old on the first day of May, 1823.

Eclipse was foaled at Dosoris, Queens County, Long

Island, New York, on the 25th of May, 1814, was reared by General Nathaniel Coles, the breeder, in whose possession he remained until the 15th day of March, 1819, when he changed hands and became the property of Mr. Van Ranst. He was sired by Durock; his dam was Miller's Damsal, by imported Messenger, grandam the English Pot-8-os Mare, imported when three years old in 1795 by William Constable, Esq., of New York. Pot-8-os was sired by English Eclipse, his great-grandam by Jim Crack, he by Cripple, and Cripple by Godolphin Arabian. This horse was as much of a success when turned to the stud as a brood horse as he was famous as a performer, when on the turf, meeting and defeating all the best horses at all distances of his day,

(Borrowed of Volume I, American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine.)

A portrait accompanying this number of the celebrated racer and idol of the North, by name American Eclipse, was engraved by Du Rand and Wright, taken from the original painting, the property of Henry Hall, Esq., of New York, and was acknowledged by all good judges to be an excellent likeness. This horse was then 15 years old, a chestnut with a star and near hind foot white, was 1 5 hands i inch high, and possessed a large share of bone and muscle.