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RECENT ADDITIONS TO TURF HISTORY. Volume by a Tennessee Author Covering Many Features of Early Racing in This Country. "Making the American Thoroughbred" is the title of a book written and compiled by Douglas Anderson of Madison. Davidson. Coumy. Tenn. It is a limited edition, suitable for turf libraries, and Mr. Anderson sells it himself. The ltook deals in the main with Tennessee turfmen and turf affairs of long ago and. through the writings of Italic Peyton, presents some vivid pictures of racing when Andrew Jackson was a dominating figure in its conduct. To those unfamiliar with racing in the days when l ookmaking. poolselling ami mutuels were undreamed of. there is much of interest in the description of the racing and betting ways of the time. The story of the famous Peytona -Fashion race is will told in particular, and there are rvini-niseiices of Glencoo, leviathan. Diomed and Lu:-.boroiigh. horses which profoundly affected American breeding. Men of long ago. touched upon in its pagi s. are William It. Johnson of Virginia. Andrew Jackson. James Jackson of Alabama who imported ilencoe. Hugh Kirkman. W. G. Harding. Andrew J. Donelson. John Bnndolph. Martin Van Buren. Lucius J. Polk and others who, while ardent turfmen, were also men of national renown. Some Impressions Abroad. There is a chapter devoted to the myths of early English turf history, including the alleged feat of Flying Childers in running a mile in a minute. This has attracted attention in England and, in a recent edition, "Vigilant" says in London Sportsman: "In reviewing Making of the American Thoroughbred. my friend Garcth. of the Referee. finds fault with the author. James I. Anderson, for stating that the length of the Beacon course at Newmarket was four miles one furlong and Lis yards. Bightly enough. Garcth points out that the present distance is four miles one furlong and 177 yards, but Mr. Andersons reference was to the Beacon course in the days of Flying Childers. That celebrated racehorse was foaled as long ago as 1715. thirty-six years before Reginald Heber published the first number of the Racing Calendar. and I have no official record of the exact distance of the Beacon course when Flying Childers ran it in the alleged time of seven minutes thirty seconds, but in 179t the distance was as given by Mr. Anderson. I say alleged time for the simple reason that, if collect, he galloped the four miles one furlong and MB yards at the average rate of 1:47 per mile. Good going, that would be making him about as good as the later-day American mare, Lucretia Borgia, which is credited with having galloped four miles on a California track in 7:11. Allowing roughly seventeen seconds for the extra distance, she would have covered the full Beacon distance in 7:28. Flying Childers records may have been beyond dispute, but the fact that he was stated by some of the old chroniclers to have galloped the Bound course three miles six furlongs and ninety-three yards at the rate of nearly a mile a minute has led many people to regard his reputed times with suspicion which may not have been deserved. His recorded time for the Round course was i:40. and some old-time turf writer who was palpably somewhat "rocky at figures calculated that the horse moved eighty-two feet and a half in one second of time, which is nearly at the rate of one mile in a minute." An a matter of fact. Flying Childers time works out at the rate of fifty feet and a fraction over two inches per second, which is roughly at the rate of a trifle over 1:45 per mile. William Picks "Turf Register and Sportsman and Breeders Stud Book. which was published in 1S03. also gives the distance of the Beacon course as four miles one furlong and MS yards, and according to that industrious compiler of turf lore Flying Childers, in addition to his other good qualities. was a long jumper of note, leaping thirty feet on level ground with his rider. Bartletts Childers. "Flying Childers, although so famous as a racehorse, did not establish an enduring male line, whereas his brother Bartletts Childers, sired Squirt, from whom came Marske. the sire of the world-famous Eclipse. Flying Childers, which was by the Darby Arabian —Betty Leedes, was nearly drowned in his foalhood, according to The Druid. in Potterie Carr. Bartletts Childers was never trained or raced, probably because of his frequently breaking small blood vessels in his nose."
