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THE STORY OF THE SPRINTER XVII. By SALVATOB. In our last two chapters there was nar-i rated how sprinting was Introduced into major American racing programs in the year 1864, at two newly-built tracks in New Jersey, by two new associations, which were promoted by New York turfmen and intended to attract the racegoers of the metropolis and its hinterlands. The first of the pair was that opened with a flourish at Paterson, in the spring, with its feature race the Jersey Derby the first race to be called a Derby and modeled after the renowned event at Epsom, that was ever given in America. But, while for that reason it will always be a historic event, in its influence upon the future of the sport in this country it was of small importance compared with another stake sponsored at the meeting. That was the Nursery Stake, for two-year-olds, at six furlongs. As the first race of the kind ever given in this country for performers" of that age, at a distance of less than one mile, it was the entering wedge for what thereafter was to occur the prominence, first, of the two-year-olds, and, second, of short-distance racing among us. The second of the pair was the track built immediately afterward at Secaucus, N. J., close by the Paterson track, the two being but a short way apart. At the inaugural meeting held over this track in October, 1864, was given the first sprint for all aged horses ever programmed on this side of the Atlantic by a racing association of the first class as a regular purse event. It was in this manner that "the die was cast" though at the time nobody could have dreamed of the eventual consequences. All that was "in the air" at that time was that the innovators, who had with them the leaders of the Metropolitan turf, wanted to scrap the old time American racing system of long distance, and principally heat events and substitute for it dash racing, with, for the first time in our turf history, racing at fractional distances, not only by two-year-olds, but by horses of all ages. Having initiated both "new things," it was next in order to move from mere overnight purses to formal stakes for all aged sprinters. And here again the scene was Jersey. In 1866 the Secaucus management seems to have decided to take this step, which, it is quite likely, was the subject of much debate before being taken. Then, for the spring meeting, among the stakes offered was the Jersey Selling Sweepstakes, which was carded as the opening event on the first day. The conditions were: Entrance, 0 each, play or pay, with 00 added money; horses of all ages; distance, a half mile. That was going all the way with a vengeance, for instead of the six furlong distance that might have been expected, the route was but half a mile! Evidently in this the association made the mistake of going too far. Very few horses in. the major stables were as yet being trained to go less than a mile and the regular regimen of most of them called for their being kept in trim to race heats of a mile or beyond. They might be retailored into six furlong animals in a pinch, but a mere half mile! That was altogether different it was getting down too near the quarter-horse level, and, we may doubt not, many owners and trainers, even if they were willing to embrace the "New Deal", were not prepared for anything so radical. For the old American tradition which held any horse unable to go at least a mile not deserving of the name of thoroughbred was still very much alive and on the spot. The enterprise of the Secaucus people therefore proved a "dud." Only three nominations were received to the Jersey Selling Sweepstakes. Two of them paid forfeit, and when the starters were summoned to the post, nothing appeared by an unnamed mare, five years, by imported The Knight of St. George, from the stable of the celebrated Colonel McDaniel, whose fame as the head of the "McDaniel confederacy", and the owner of Harry Bassett and other great racers, is a part of turf history. She walked over and was awarded the stakes. Saratoga, however, held back. But at length, at her summer meeting of 1866, gave her first event at less than one mile, for horses of all ages; this being a six-furlong sprint for a purse of 00. There were six starters and it was won by John Hunters Areola, a five-year-old son of Lexington and a brilliant performer that season, he beating out Throgs Neck, Jr., previously encountered as the winner of the pioneer event of that kind, at Secaucus, two years before. At that meeting also was given a purse race for the juveniles at six furlongs. The two-year-old leaven had been working1. In the West, at St. Louis, where a big meeting was held in the fall of 1864, there had been given a six-furlong sweepstakes for that age obviously inspired by the one staged that spring at Paterson. While the Secaucus innovators, apparently on their tip-toes to lead the procession, had given an 50 sweepstakes for two-year-olds at their 1865 fall meeting, the distance, a half-mile. While all this was going on, Kentucky and the Old South had remained aloof; privately, and sometimes publicly, expressing disapproval of the whole movement. But the contagion made its way even into their citadels where it first broke out publicly at Louisville and at the fall meet of 1866, there was given a two-year-old sweepstakes at three-quarters of a mile; the management, very prudently, adding to it just 00. Only two of the Blue Grass turfmen had the hardihood to saddle their juveniles for it, and the winner was Grigsby and Wests filly Phoenix Belle, one of the first of the get of imported Australian to score in public. But the post-war revivals at New Orleans, Nashville and other far-southern points saw no favors for either two-year-olds or sprinters. None whatever unless they were ready to go at least a mile, if not mile heats. In that region the initiative was at length taken by the Nashville Blood Horse Association, which in the spring of 1867 opened the ball with the Young America Stakes, for two-year-olds, at six furlongs. The winner of this event was the black filly Charlotte Thompson, while second to her was the bay colt Pat. Malloy. In after years Charlotte Thompson, when bred to imported Bonnie Scotland, produced the first of Americas "iron horses," the immortal gelding Bar-num, who started in 297 races and won 84 of them, second in 57 and third in 42; while Pat Malloy proved one of the best sons of Lexington on the course and at the stud. That year of 1867 was made memorable in the annals of the turf by the formation of the American Jockey Club of New York and the inaugural meeting given at its new course, historic Jerome Park. The opening event of this meet, which was one of the greatest sporting and social occasions that Manhattan had thus far ever seen, was the Spring Stakes, for two-year-olds, six furlongs. It was won by Francis Morris famous filly, Ruthless, daughter of imported Eclipse and the great matron, Barbarity, the English mare that had accompanied Eclipse on the ship that brought him to America, and that to his cover produced the "Barbarous Battalion," including, beside Ruthless, Remorseless, Regardless, Merciless, Devastation, Barbarian, etc. They beccme the terror of the New York tracks because of their prodigious speed. There was no race for aged horses at any fractional distance at this meeting, however. And here we encounter one of those phases of human nature which should not surprise us. While the New Yorkers had been willing to get behind tracks over in Jersey and there be parties to the introduction of sprinters of all ages, when it came to their own pompous enterprise, in their own dooryard, their hearts seemed to have failed them. Though Saratoga then dominated by Hon. John Morrissey, of pugilistic, political and Bowery renown was making all-aged sprints a regular feature of her programs now, Jerome Park held back, as if afraid to compromise her eclat. Not until at the fall meeting of 1870 did the American Jockey Club decide that it was time to join the parade. It then gave its first all-aged sprint, a sweepstakes, 5 each, play or pay, with 00 added, at six furlongs; and, as we might suppose, we again find Francis Morris and his Eclipse flyers in the spotlight. Only two horses started and Mr. Morris filly Felicity, by Eclipse Fidelity, and an own sister of Throgs Neck, Jr., that back in 1864 had won the first all-aged sprint ever given in America, at Secaucus, N. J., was the winner, beating B. G. Thomas Zinga. B. G. Thomas, as we all know, lives in breeding history as the breeder of Domino, he by Himyar, he by Alarm, and he by Eclipse. It is such facts as this that, to the reflective student of racing, indicate how surely the present goes back always to the past, and that what exists today traces inevitably to it, and the men and horses that not only made it, but by their influence and example, laid the foundations for what later on was to be.
