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CLOSE FINISHES IN FOUR-MILE RACE. Charmer and Louis dOr Run a Dead Heat in 1851 — Interestinq Story. " The many people who pronounced the Thornton Slakes, won by I.os AageleWO, as the closest on rec ord for that dhttance, were not aware that at .lainaiia. Long Klaml. on the ttth of October, IS.1, a dead heat, in the seeond heat of a four mile race, took plan- between Black Maria and TiaV. and it tiKik twenty miles, or lie heats, to decide the race," writes Thomas 1!. Merry Hidalgo, in the San Francisco Chronicle. "At New Orleans in the spring of 1835, George K. Keaaera gray stallion. .ley MedOC, ran a dead beat with Colonel .1. P. Whites bay horse Altorf. doing the four miles in 7:36, the imported horse Dciii/.en by PaillBBB. be lag beaten less than three feet. On the same track on the 1 ah da] of April, 1851, Thomas 15. Pattersons baj mare. Charmer graaddam after ward of the famoaa California mare Marion, whose progenj won over 50,600, won a race which was not decided after sixteen miles had been traversed, but required liarnnr to walk over for a liiih heal. Following is tin- official samaury of the race ami tin- plnciag of the contestants: I. 1.. Patteraoaa a m. Ohanner, tiy Glew oe " 2 ■ l i |i i Keaaera b. h. Loala dOr by Sarpedoli 2 1 It L d T. .1. Weils eh. K. Bkrodooa bj Ghracoe 1 :, d A. I.. Hingamans b. f. Atali, by Baffin a d lime. 7:11. 7::!9. 7:47, B C,. pot taken. "The tilth heal a walk over, was made lie. is Bary by the dead beat between Charmer and i.oius dOr ill the third heat. Nearly fifteen years after ward I met Mr. Keener, owner of I.iiis dOr at Saratoga, He was the brains of the Confederate Congreaa ami tncarred the pemoaal enmity of Jeff liavi by wishing to abandon the unequal all aggie i ediiiely after the battle of Jettysburg in 1881. Mr. Keiiner liad many personal friends in California after wi.oi... he in. pined, ami witch thai was over he began to talk of the old time races at long distances, and then he said: You remember the live beat mce at New Orleaaa when Chamaer got the iiioiity away from uiy horse Louis dOr. Well, the little brown horse was running beyond his true distance ball day, but I will die in the belief that he won that third beat by about ten iiu-hes. and. as he had already won the second, which was eOBBid erably the fastest in the race, that would have given him the money, of coarse, I have no desire to throw any calumny upon the gputlemen who officiated as judges of that mce for they were my personal friends and as honorable men as could In- found in the south. But no man can make iiu- believe there cv.-i was sack a thing as a dead beat, eapeciaUj in so long a race. "I have been asked for my reCOBectlOB of the four mile races run in California in the earlier days of rating before men aoaghl to convert a sport into an Industry, So I mnal go back to 1858. On the aecoad Wednesday of May in that year was run over the old Ceiiteiville coarse Back Hani gans, at Sacramento, the first four mile race ever ran west ot the KoeVies. 1 lie coniestaiits were Nathan Coombs b. h. Ashland, live years old. IM pound.-, by Imported Gleacoe, out of Mary Bell. b] Sea Cull, ridden by John Williams, and William M. Williamsons eh. h. Owen Hale, six years old, lis |M iiiids. by Belmont, out of Maria Oonning. by American Kelipse, ridden by Samuel II. Wilson. The Jadl.CS were Colonel Idwanl Mi Carry, pre aid inu: Benjamin S. I.ippim o! I. in behalf of Mr. Williamson, and Samuel II. Brooks then Con Holler of the State, for Mr. Coombs. Ashland won the race in straight beeta in 7:" ti, 7:48, that being the only race of that year in which tin- BM ond heal was faster than the lir-t. Out of this ia a great deal of bitter feeling, esie.ially as Williamson had openly said that bis rider had been bribed whether by Coombs or not he did not say, but that he had been brilied, and had ridden I he race exactly coiilrary to orders. Mu.h was said on either side by the partisans of the cmiti-siants that neither of them would indorse. O.veu Hale came out of the race a In iken down I. oisc and never started attei ward. ill the spring of that same year Williamson had sold to Colonel I. S. LathTOP of Marline/., a Cheat nut four year old called Vigilance, by Belmont, out of I.os Civ ens. by imported I.angford. The first thing I.athrop did was to change the colts name to I.angford. and as such he is known in turf his tory. In the winter of 1858 18, the bitter feeling still kept up and I.athrop offered to run Langford four mile heats against any horse in America for 810,881 a side and allow 88,581 for expenses. This challenge remained in the Spirit of the Times four weeks and met with no response. A rejiort then got out that Langford had gone lame Iu training ami I.athorp sent a note to Marcus Bonn k, asking him to withdraw the challenge. No sooner was It withdrawn that Mr. Coombs came out with a banter, offering to run Ashland at heats of two, three or four miles, for 88,881 a side against any horse, mare or gelding in California. One week after the issuame of this bold defiance, Messrs. Coombs and Lathrop met at the old Bank Exchange and signed agreements to tun Langford ami Ashland at four-mile heats over the Ceiiteiville track at Sacramento for ,000 on Ashland against 88,588 on Langford. Mr. Coombs paying .".U0 for the privilege of naming the track on which the race was to be run. A few days later 1 met Mr. Coombs. " Well, you have done it this time. " What have 1 done? he asked. " Well, you have made a race to run in April, according to New Orleans rules, and by this you have let Langford in at 100 pounds. If you had Continued oa secouil page. CLOSE FINISHES IN FOUR-MILE RACE. Continued from first page. ■Side it to run in May. he would have had to cany 110 pounds. "Yen, and I would have had to cany lis. which i- really twelve more than be likes. No, l had to run at 114 and take the chance of beat ing 1 1 i in that way," said Mr. Coombs. " •]»•■ yon know b w you will beat hiinV You will tun ahead of him under a pull f.,r a mile: yon will had for aboat a half mile further, and then Langford will limply gallop you to death. " On the day of the race they were betting -lo 1 on the Kenlui !.y hflCSe. Jnat U they came out I pulled out S 1 • m i and bet It Bve ti nes over • it | ." b 9169 that Ashland would not get a heat. They crowded around me like wolves around a dying stag atal I believe that if I had had Sin. mm with ni - I could have bet every cent of it. Ml. CoomtlS i aim- up and said. • Tom, Ill mark lime with you f .r 9j26. ■"Ill do nothing of the kind. If you want to mark lime. I will mark tor £1,699 and put both marks in an envelope to lie placed in the hands of the judges and not lo be Opened till the race is over. I would have marked 7:.:7 and that would have beaten A-hland by a city block. "Ashland had waiting orders, luit was unable to keep ap the furious pace Langford set. with his light weight, for the first two miles, which were done in mm.. After hat the race was a mere canter for Langford. who won in 7:1:;-. Ashland being Aran a at tet that. "From that time out there was not a four-mile race run in the slate until isii7, when Pete, a seven-year-Old mare and a full sister to Langford. won i 11,060 porae at tin- Ocean House track. beating Transit*, Maj be-So am! Woodbnm, the latter being distanced in the first heat and May-he-So m the second. From that time on t.iere was no Com aile racing until October. Is7.i. when Ceorgo Treat-, horse. Thad Slovens, beat Joe Hani. Is J«St off tin cars aii.l Baltot Box, a four mile heat race at the Oakland track, the first heat being run in sad ::. second in 7:50. then the fastest ; beat in history. "Out of this ETC* the great slteen-mile race at the Ocean House track, won by Thad Stevens in his third and fourth heats. of all the detestable jobs in American turf history this was the wont. True Itlue could have won the race if Joe Daniels bad not cut him down from behind, and after that Toe Daniels could have won if his bridle had not broken. The time was 7:4.".. V »s, 7:57. S:20, Joe Daniels taking the firs! beat am! True Blue the second. I know of at least three men who had 0,000 worth of cheeks in that pool has who had not one dollar in the bank- mi which tho-c checks were drawn. And had any horse but Thad Stevens won tie- race, tin-., would have been out in the harbor searching for outward bound ship-, headed for countries with which the Inited States bad no treaties of extradition. "Next Came the race in which Katie Pease beat HardWOOd, Henry and Thad Stevens over the then new Pay District track in straight heats. The time was 7:4.!;. 7:.::.. Joe Daniels was BUM a starler, bul brhfee down and was di-lanced A tear later they had the one that mii guaranteed at 0,000, but the srlnner u"i leas than 97,46b In actual rash. I: Was won by Mark I.iltells eh. h. Poster, by Lexington, out of Verona, by v oik shire, billing Mr. Paldwins Rutherford an! _siv others. Golden Gate and llo A Uucking were well inside the lag, but were reported dislanced — to save tlie payment of second and third moneys, of course, and this infamy ended up all four-mile racing on the Pacific coast until HM, when Thomas II. Williams sought to revive the smoldering fires by inaugurating the Thornton Stakes. "I have been asked by the Chronicle to give all the close finishes that have occurred in the several renewals of that event, and from all that I can glean there is nothing to paraJMI the victory of I.os Angeleno over Mamie Algol, which was by the shortest of heads. The only other close finish in tlie history of the race was in lsus. when Sandy MeNaiightons black horse. Judge Denny, lient Barney Bchreibers Marplot, a three year-old at that, by less than three parts of a length. Other four-mile races were tun at Ingleside. one won by Little Bat ami the other by the Australian mare Candid, owned by a. It. SpreckoK who defeated Corrigans Teal horse. 0. p. Morris, in a common canter."
