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! History of A merican Thoroughbred Fourth Instalment. Thus Fearnought is come of the highest and purest blood in England and has left his mark largely on the blood horse of Virginia. It is said that, before his time, there was little beyond quarter racing in Virginia, that his progeny were of uncommon figure and first introduced the size and bottom of the English race horse into America. This must be taken, however, with a grain of salt, as it is evident from what has been stated in regard to Selima, that four-mile racers were the fashion in Maryland at least fifteen ! years before that date. It is only to be understood in the case of second-rate racers that quarter running was in vogue at this period. These capital horses were shortly followed by Mortons Traveller, which was probably sired by Partner, a grandson of the Byerly Turk and grandsire of King Herod, dam by the Bloody Buttocks Arabian ; granddam by Greyhound, a Barb ; great granddam by Makeless ; great great granddam by Brimmer; great great great granddam by White Turk; great great great great granddam by Dodsworth, a Barb ; great great great great great granddam Layton Barb mare. Makeless was by the Oglethorpe Aru Trumpets dam. She was a pure Barb by Dodsworth Layton Barb mare. Brimmer was by Yellow Turk and a royal mare. These were probably the best early horses that were imported into America and to these, with the mares Selima, Queen Mab, Jenny Cameron, Kitty Fisher, Miss Colville and a few others of about the same period may be traced all, or almost all, the families of running horses now existing in the United States, in a greater or less degree, and with nearly as much certainty as the English champions of the olden day may be followed up to imported Arab and Barb on both sides. It is unfortunate, first, that our Revolutionary war interrupted the peaceful progress of the country and the avocations of our country gentlemen, at so early a period in the history of the American turf, since it has materially increased the difficulty of ascertaining how far records or registries have been preserved or were kept from the first. When men were fighting for their hearths, with the halter literally around their necks, and daily expecting their houses to be burned over their heads, they had little time, one may well imagine, to be attending to the pedigrees of thoroughbred horses or to preserving original entries. It is to be presumed, moreover, where many head of families were ausent from their estates with the army or were obliged to expatriate or conceal themselves from the consequences of proscription and outlawry, that many irregularities must have occurred from want of due attention to the studs themselves, as well as to the records of them. Many documents must have been destroyed by conflagrations or other accidents and lost in the hurry of removals. Secondly, it is most unfortunate that no regular turf registry was ever set on foot in America until so late as 1823. A REST ARlt ABLE FACT. But, on the whole, it may be regarded as remarkable, rather, that so many pedigrees can be unequivocally followed out that a few should be obscure and untraceable farther than to an imported mare. In fact, so that the owners were satisfied that the imported mares were undoubted thoroughbreds, from a well-known and accredited English turf stable, they seemed to have 1 received them almost as undoubtingly, as did our still more remote ancestors those of Oriental blood, without much questioning or going beyond the record. For curiosity and precision, it is to be regretted that a few of our genealogies cannot be traced a little farther and more definitely. It must be conceded as a fact, however, which cannot be questioned or doubted, that our American horses are as unequivocally thoroughbred as any of those English champions the blood of which no one dreams of disputing and which go back, like that of Eclipse himself, through Bustler and Rockwood, or many others of erstwhile re-known, to an unknown dam or sire. It will be observed, and it is not a little remarkable, how many of the earliest Virginian and Maryland importations run through Partner on the one hand, to Spanker and Spankers dam, the. White and Yellow dArcy Turks, and Selaby Turk, and either the old Vinter or the Layton violet Barb mares and, on the other hand, to the Godol-phin Arabian, through Regulus, Babraham, Juniper, Dormouse and others. I say it is remarkable because after this blood had been bred for many years in this country, more or less in and in, the celebrated horse Sir Archy, son of imported Dio-med and imported Castianira, running back through his sire, his grandsire Florizel, and his great grandsire Sir Herod into precisely the same strain of Partner blood and through his granddam Tabitha, into the same Babraham and Godolphin strain, seems to have produced by a reinfusion of the self-same original elements, a new stock of unequaled excellence, of iron endurance, constitution, speed and stoutness which has continually won fresh laurels and successfully competed in the lists of fame on the very courses whereon their ancestors ran over a century and a half ago, with their far-away kindred of the ocean island. EXTENSION OF RACING INTEREST. From Virginia and Maryland the racing spirit extended itself rapidly into the Caro-linas. The Newmarket course, near Petersburg, Va., and the Washington course, near Charleston, S. C, were famous in the middle of the eighteenth century. At Alexandria, D. C, there was a race course early in the eighteenth century and the courses in the neighborhood of Richmond were in existence more than seventy years. Previous to the Revolutionary war there were two race courses on Long Island, one called Newmarket, near tho center of Suffolk County and the other, Jamaica, in Queens County, at both of which trials for speed were frequently had, but whether there were meetings at stated intervals and for regular prizes is not known. It was not until about the commencement of the nineteenth century, however, that what may be called race courses proper were established in New York. The first club for the promotion of the breed of horses by means of racing took date from 1S04 in which .year the old Newmarket course was remodeled and regular meetings, with two and three-mile heats, were established. I Long prior to this time, however, the im-" provement of the breed of horses had cre ated much interest in that state. As early as 1764 and 1765 two celebrated horses, Wildair, by Cade, and Lath, by Shepherds Crab, were imported by Colonel Delancy of Kings Bridge, who also imported the Cub mare, dam of Mr. Gibsons Cub mare, killed on the course at Lancaster. Both Wildair and Lath greatly distinguished themselves as sires. The former was esteemed so valuable that he was re-imported to England. Another horse. Sloven, said to be by Cub,- is stated by Skinner and by Edgar, on the faith of a pedigree signed Jacob Adlie, to have also been imported into New York in about 1764. He is not, however, to be found in the British stud bock, Weatherbys, and I am not aware that any of the greater champions of the American turf trace their descent to Sloven. In North and South Carolina racing commenced with spirit second only to the date cf its commencement in Virginia and Maryland. Fhmnap, Sweeper and Tody, all horses held in high estimation at the time, were imported between the years 1760 and 1770. The former was a grandson on boWi sides cf Godolphin Arabian and both cf the otheis traced to the same great progenitor and to other ancestors scarcely of inferior note. The last named was imported by Colonel Alston of racing celebrity in North Carolina. Into Pennsylvania, which state had never shone particularly on the racing turf, were brought two horses, Gray Northumberland, also called Irish Gray, said to have been bred by Lord Mazarine, and to have been a racer in high form, supposedly imported by Mr. Crow; about the same time Old England, pedigree also unknown, but supposedly begot by Old England, son of the Godolphin Arabian. To these must be given the credit of running one of the oldest great American time races on record, as long ago as 1767, against two other horses, one of which, Selim, it is not easy to identify on account of there appearing to have been three of the same name serving nearly at the same time. 1 presume he was the son of the imported horse Selim, by Othello, granddam of the large Hartley mare, described on page 55 of Edgars Stud Book, as imported in his mothers belly in 1753. This date does not exactly agree, however, with the ages of the horses, as recorded below. ACCOUNT OF OLD RACE. In volume 1, page 17, of the American Turf Register, I find the following highly interesting letter: "Marietta, June 26, 1836. "Mr. Editor, "Sir.: "According to promise, you have an account of the race run at Philadelphia in the year 1767 by Selim and other horses. It is copied from the Maryland Gazette, cf Mr. Green, October 22, 1767, by him taken from a Philadelphia paper. " On Tuesday, last, the following horss3 started for the gentlemens subscription purse of 100 guineas: " Samnel Galloway. Esq., bay horse Selim 1 1 Mr. Learys bay hcrse Old England 2 dist. Mr. Samuels bay horse Granby 3 dr. Mr. Andrew Orrs gray horse North- umbcrland dist. " The first heat was run in eight minutes two seconds, Selim winning from Old England by a single length. The second, after running three times round close at the heels of Selim, Old England flew the course. "The standard was ten stone 140 pounds. Selim was then eight years old and carried 140 pounds, full weight. Old England and Northumberland were both imported. "It is believed that this running was never exceeded, if equaled, in this country. To form a correct judgment of the speed cf a horse the weight carried must always be recollected. If, as the old and experienced sportsmen say, seven pounds are equal to a distance which is 240 yards, it follows that fourteen pounds will make the difference of 480 yards, a space which WGUld consume twenty-two seconds at the rate of running at Philadelphia. Deduct this from eight minutes and two seconds and it leaves 7 :20, in which this race would have run if the standard had been nine stone 126 pounds. I have never seen an account of a race where the four miles were run in 7 :30 in tho United States. "Figure beat Selim in 1768, at Upper Marlborough, but Selim was undoubtedly in bad condition and had been lately cured of distemper in the throat. He was certainly a capital racer. I saw him beat the celebrated Silver Legs from Virginia in the year 1772 at Alexandria, four miles, and repeat He was then thirteen years old and Silver Legs only nine. "With respect and esteem, "G. DUVAL." To Be Continued.
