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Here and There on the Turf PreRevolutionary Racing Virginia Founder of the theSport Sport Maryland Also a Nursery NurseryState State With the announcement of a race meeting at Huntington W Va at which it is pro ¬ posed to give a Derby next spring there comes to mind that colonial Maryland and Virginia were the favorite racing grounds early iu the eighteenth century Records show that there was racing in Virginia in 1739 and a Virginia Gazette of the issue of Dec 14 1739 tells of a race in which eight horses started The prizes were a saddle of forty shillings value to the first horse a bridle to the second and a whip to the third There were several jockey clubs in Virginia before the Revolution the principal being at Petersburg Fredericksburg Portsmouth Dumfries Warwick and Williams burg the latter most famous of them all and there were other famous racing grounds at York Gloucester and Alexandria It was in Virginia that the thoroughbred horse was first bred in this country and to this day the state has proud descendants of famous sportsmen of nearly two hundred years ago who still have that samu spirit Of all stales Virginia has every right to be a racing ground None other has the same wealth of heritage heritageThoroughbred Thoroughbred horse breeding has been car ¬ ried on almost continuously in Virginia and though for a considerable time that state was outstripped by Kentucky with its blue grass and California with its alfalfa and its natural pastures Virginia is coming back rapidly rapidlyBreeding Breeding farms have been established and eld ones revived until the state gives promise of reviving its old glories and taking its tra ¬ ditional place as a foremost thoroughbred nursery nurseryEdward Edward B McLean has a farm of consider abls importance at which he has been breeding thoroughbreds for his own racing uses and the latest establishment of note is that1 of Mont fort and B B Jones They have taken over Audlcy Farm and it is to be conducted along lines lhat arc certain to bring back its old glories gloriesJ J S Gosden has established a magnificent establishment and there aie other breeders and sportsmen who are headed the same way wayMaryland Maryland has almost as venerable a turf history as Virginia but in that state racing has come back importantly and year after year it has been becoming more secure and more magnificent magnificentIn In Francis Barnum Culvers Blooded Horses of Colonial Days it is shown that in the period from 1745 to 1775 racing flourished in Maryland The racing centers in the state at that time were at Annapolis and Elkridge in Anne Arundel County Baltimore town and Joppa in Baltimore County Newport and Port Tobacco in Charles County Fredericks town and Georgetown in Frederick County Chestcrtown in Kent County Broad Creek in Kent Island County Bladcnsburg lower Marlborough Nottingham Piscataway Queen Anne town Rock Creek and upper Marlbor ¬ ough in Princs George County Leonard town in St Marys County Oxford or Will iamstadt and Easton or Talbot County Court House in Talbot County The Maryland Jockey Club which has done more for racing in modern days in the state than any of the other associations is an in ¬ heritance from the old Maryland Jockey Club that was formed in March of 1783 1783At At that time Governor Packa and Richard Prigg were the stewards and the members were C Carroll Colonel Edward Lloyd Colonel John Eager Howard Thomas Russell Edward Cour sey William Brogden Richard Bennett Lloyd Samuel Galloway James Tilghman Jr Col ¬ onel John Hoskins Stone Henry W Pearce Charles Steuart Dr James Steuart William Steuart Joseph Galloway Dr William Murray Benjamin Ogle Richard Bennett Hall General Cadwalader Benjamin C Stoddert Samuel Harrison Major John Davidson Colonel George Plater and James Maccubbin MaccubbinThis This is just a glimpse into the old days of the sport when the governor of Maryland and the governor of Virginia both considered it essential that they should own and race horses as a part of the social duties of the high office officeQuoting Quoting from Mr Culvers interesting work on the early days of the thoroughbred in this country it is shown that horses wers plentiful in Maryland from the earliest days of the prov ¬ ince In 1692 an act was passed to restrain the unreasonable increase of horses in the province Then in 1704 there was a law pro ¬ hibiting the bringing of horses mares colts or fillies from Pennsylvania and other terri ¬ tories into the province of Maryland for sale saleJust Just an evidence of what racing meant in j Maryland hi 1877 was demonstrated when Con gress adjourned to witness the decision of a two and a half mib sweepstakes at Pimlico on October 24 24This This race was won by Piexre Lorillards Panole with F B Harpers Ten Broeck sec ¬ ond and George L Lorillards Tom Ochiltree third thirdIt It is small wonder that the turf is thriv ¬ ing in Maryland with that wealth of racing history back of it but it is surprising that the turfmen of Virginia have not long since brought back racing to something approaching the glory of the colonial days of the sport
