view raw text
History of American Thoroughbred Thirteenth Article. Kate Kearney, at Newmarket the preceding week, won a great swecptakes in good t time, beating Slender and another. Two i days before, her race with Ariel she won ! another race of two-mile heats in the best 1 time at Tree Hill, 3 minutes 57 seconds and i 3 minutes 50 seconds. She beat Slender, . Eaxy and another in the second heat. Slen- i der, the next day after the sweepstakes, won a Proprietors purse in two-mile heacs, 1 beating Lafayette, Caswell, Susan Robinson, i Sally Drake and another, in 3 minutes 56 i seconds and 3 minutes 52 seconds. Star, i a few weeks before, had run a severe two- 1 mile second heat at Norfolk, beating Polly Hopkins in 3 minutes 42 seconds, the best 1 time to that date over the course, which i was twenty-nine yards short of a mile. 48. At Belfield, the week after her Tree : Hill race, Ariel won a Proprietors purse of 00 in two-mile heats. Polly Hopkins, three years old, won a Jockey Club purse of 00 in three-mile heats the preceding day and, at New Hope, the following week, took a Proprietors purse of 50. 49. November. At New Hope, N. C, Ariel closed her career in the "race horse region" by winning a Jockey Club purse of 00 in three-mile heats. In March, 1829, she was purchased from David Branch and passed into the hands of Hamilton Willies, who traveled her the entire distance to New York by land, about 400 miles, and renewed her exploits in the land of her birth, leaving the scenes of her glory to her successors in fame, Kate Kearney, Polly Hopkins, Slender and Star. Of the twelve races she ran as a six-year-old Ariel won ten. She was obviously out of condition in the last two she lost to Medley and Kate Kearney respectively. 50. May 12. At the Union course, Long Island, at the first spring meeting, Ariel, now seven years old, was beaten by the famed Betsy Ransom, gr. m, 5, by Virginian, in a well contested race for a Jockey Club purse in four-mile heats. The race was run in 7 minutes 57 seconds for the first heat, and 8 minutes 7 seconds for the second. AGAIN" LOSES TO BETSEY RANSOM. 5L May 26. At the same place at the second meeting, a fortnight after, she was L . in like manner again beaten by Betsey . Ransom for a Jockey Club purse in four-mile , heats. Time, 7 minutes 52 seconds ; 8 minutes , 1 second. 52. June. At Poughkeepsie, N. Y., the t next week, Ariel beat Betsey Ransom for a Jockey Club purse of 00 in four-mile heats t in 7 minutes 52 seconds ; 8 minutes 1 second. The race was run in three heats and the time for the last one is not available. We are happy to reproduce the following animat- ed account of this interesting race from the pen of a valued correspondent: : Since the contest between Eclipse and Sir Henry, in 1823, no race at the North has J excited so intense an interest in the spectators as the one between Ariel and Betsey 3 Ransom on the Douchess course. In two 1 prior trials at Long Island Betsey Ransom proved victorious. The friends of Ariel, though somewhat consoled by her gallant performance in her last race with her rival, " saw her entered in the present contest with ; reluctance, feeling there was little chance - for her to regain her lost laurels. 5 When they were led upon the ground the 1 appearance of the two differed as widely as 7 their prospects. The firm, elastic reaching step, the fiery eye and lofty bearing of I Betsey Ransom gave assurance of condition - and showed her conscious of her powers and I confident of victory, while the short and stif-i fened gait, the quiet and determined coun-t tenance of Ariel seemed plainly to say, "I ; 7 have lost my station as first among the fleet . L ones of my race, but I will regain it or die." e They started. Betsey Ransom went off on . the lead at a moderate pace and appeared . e resolved to do no more than was necessary. , At the end of two miles she broke away, as e from mere whim, at such a gait and at such i c a stride as would have rendered useless i s to Ariel the wings of her gallant namesake, j Her ultimate exertions could only bring her 1 within three or four lengths of this kill-a devil at the winning post. The heat was run i s in 7 minutes 52 seconds, the last two miles i j in 3 minutes 52 seconds. f The loss of the heat rendered the prospect r r of Ariel still more gloomy and the chance of f . winning so desperate that it was determined I . to withdraw her. This was on the point of I a being announced when, as the groom was leading up Betsey Ransom to receive the s award of victory, the experienced eye of Ariels trainer detected in Betsey Ransom l 2 some indication of sorrow. There were three s or four minutes to spare and he hastily threw-on his saddle and started her. Betsey Ran- n som again took the lead at a pace so rapid that it gave her long and silvary tail the ; appearance of a meteor streaming in the 5 wind. For three miles she kept frolicking on, , f sometimes breaking away and making a gap ;r that seemed to say, "I will punish you, e dainty spirit of the air, for your presumption, n by leaving you without the distance," and 1 of again waiting for her, as if repenting so 1 harsh a purpose. d In the meantime Ariel went steadily on 1 in n at a gait that did not vary, except once in 1 j the second mile, when in changing her feet t she threw her rider forward and lost eight t j or ten yards by the falter. At the end of f three miles Betsey Ransom found Ariel with-ie - in a yard of her and, in another instant, . . alongside. Now came the siruggle for thn r. track, desperate and determined. It created 1 :e an interest so deep and a silence so pro-ie - found that one might almost hear the hearts 3 of the multitude beat It could not last t ;s long. At the end of a straight quarter-mile 2 ls Ariel had the track. "Ariel is ahead !" was 3 h thundered out with a shout that would have i wakened the soundest sleeper of the seven. u t i ! 1 i . i 1 i i i 1 1 i : ; . . i i i i r f I I s l s ; 5 , 1 1 1 t t f - . 1 - 3 t 2 3 i u F There was a half-mile yet to go. i Ariel kept the track no time to lose one I short half-mile, one short minute more, Ariel E may pluck a laurel from ner wreath that she must regain or unbind her brows. They r turned down the straight side of the last i quarter-mile, Ariel half a length ahead, r Neither rider had a whip, from an idea of I its uselessness. They are at the distance 1 post, side by side. A single stroke of the whip would have decided it either way. Bet- r sey Ransoms rider uses his hand, but it will i not do. Ariel wins the heat by half a neck, I in S minutes 1 second, amidst the cheers I thousands. 1 In half an hour they again started to de- j termine the third and last heat. Betsey Ran- j som had lost her taste for frolicking and i went steadily and rapidly on, with Ariel only I a length behind, for three miles and a quar- I ter. Here Ariel made a run and passed her, taking and keeping the lead by two or three j lengths thereafter. Thus she regained her j lost laurels and thus she proved herself to I be an "out and outer," or, as the best judge t a the Union course pronounced her, "a s truly formidable race horse." GODOLPHLN. j 53. October. At Poughkeepsie, Ariel won f with ease a Jockey Club purse of 00 in four-mile heats, beating Light Infantry. 54. At the Union course, the following week, she won a Jockey Club purse of 00 in four-mile heats, beating her only com- j petitor. Lady Flirt, with such ease in the t first heat that she was withdrawn. Lady i Flirt had won the three-mile heats with f eclat at Poughkeepsie, where she subr,e- quently beat Black Maria and others at the latter distance. J 55. May 8, 1830. Ariel, now eight years i old, had been matched by the gentlemen of the North to run on the Union course ; against Colonel Johnsons Arietta, four years old, by Virginian. Ariel was to carry 100 pounds against Ariettas 87 pounds. Tiie race was at two miles for ,000. Arietta i won this race by rather more than a length. ! Sixty yards more would probably have given ! it to Ariel. The first mile was run in 1 minute 47 seconds and the two miles in 3 ! minutes 44 seconds. 56. May 12. Sir Lovel, six years old, beat ! Ariel in three-mile heats, Ariel coming in second and beating Bachelor and Yankee Maid. Time, 5 minutes 47 seconds ; 5 minutes ; 53 seconds. , 57. May 18. In less than a week Ariel -again entered the lists with Sir Lovel, at Poughkeepsie, where she was destined to 1 replace the laurels she lost on the Union course. The race was in many respects a second edition of her race with Betsey Ran- , some on the same course. Sir Lovel, the favorite at 100 to 30, led off in gallant style 1 and took the first heat in 7 minutes 54 sec- onds. There was scarce a doubt as to the result In the second heat he took the lead as before, Ariel pressing him more closely every mile. The first mile was run in 1 minute 57 seconds and the second in 1 minute 59 seconds. The third mile was covered in 1 minute 54 seconds, the three miles in 5 minutes 50 seconds. In a half mile more Ariel went ahead, as in the former race, and Sir Lovel gave up, allowing Ariel to win with ease in 8 minutes. Sir Lovel was then withdrawn and the purse went to Ariel. ARIELS LAST RACE. This was Ariels last race and with the fame that Sir Lovel subsequently acquired, was of itself sufficient to establish her fame. Two days thereafter Sir Lovel beat Maryland Eclipse and Lady Hunter in two-mile heats in 3 minutes 50 seconds and 3 minuses 46 seconds in a severely contested race. The next week on the Union course he beat Arietta in a match race for ,000, in two-mile heats, in 3 minutes 45 seconds and 3 minutes 48 seconds. In the autumn Ariel was in training and brought to the Poughkeepsie course, but it does not appear why she did not run. Prob-i ably she was in the stablu with Black Maria, Celeste and othors. The former won tne four-mile heats at that meeting in 7 min-, utes 5C seconds and 7 minutes 53 seconds. The veteran Ariel was led on the courr.e for the last time on her withdrawal from the turf. She appeared the picture of the beau ideal of a race horse and hundreds of amateurs thronged around her to take a parting look at an old and deserved favorite, When stripped and saddled by her trainer she exhibited all the fire of youth with the vigor of maturity, manifesting the most ani-i mated impatience till a lad mounted her and galloped around the course for the gratifica-l tion of the admiring crowd. She brushed up the last quarter with that inevitable fairy stride which they had so often viewed with delight then, taking leave of the arena of her triumphs she went leisurely into re-l tirement, from which no friend could wish to recall her, covered with imperishable laurels, the prize of many a hard-fought field. A LONG -DISTANCE RECORD. Thus it appears Ariel had run more than 345 miles in fifty-seven races, of which she won forty-two, seventeen of which were four-mile heats. She ran every distance in nearly the best time then attained and, we believe, the best third and fourth heats that had ever been run up to her time on the turf, She vanquished almost every horse of fame from New York to Georgia during the five years she ran, never laying by nor lame, and, when beaten, always making good races, conquered only by the best horses and at their respective distances, all of which she beat on a second trial, excepting only Monsieur Tonson, Sally Walker, Flirtilla, Kate Kearney and Arietta. The last three she ran with but once. Whenever she was beaten it may be questionable whether she was run in proper condition, Excepting her match at three years old, of three-mile heats, with the best race horse then known on the turf, she never lost a race in which she won a heat. She won, in Jockey Club purses, exclusive of bets, 5,000 for her several owners, who, with scarce an exception, if any, have all derived profit from her generous exertions. Her winnings, in number of races and distances, greatly surpass any of which we have any early account, either in England or America. Rockingham, which headed the list of English winners at the time, was winner thirty-three times. Her ancestor. PotSos, thirty-one times, and another ancestor, Gimcrack, was winner twenty-eight times out of thirty-seven. The latter was the severest runner known in England at the time. Woodpecker and imported Buzzard won twenty-eight races each. Eleanor, granddam of Luzborough and winner of the Derby and the Oaks on consecutive "days, a feat performed by no other, comes nearer to Ariel in her performances than any. To Be Continued.
