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i, f THE STORY OF THE SPRINTER XVIII. i By SALVATOB. i. , I Those readers who have followed the evolution of short-distance, or sprint, racing in America in the previous chapters of this series, were made familiar with the many ups and downs it experienced from the days of the earliest quarter horses, 300 years ago, and of the tortuous trail it left behind it, which looped and doubled, here and there, all over the map, accordingly as public taste changed or racing fashions among the leaders of sport took new turns. In our last two chapters the path was definitely opened that led to the conditions prevalent today. The first milestones set along it were as follows: June 8, 1864 The first dash race at less than one mile ever offered in the United States for two-year-olds: Nursery Sweepstakes, Paterson, N. J. Six furlongs. Won by John Hunters blk. f. La Noire, by imp. Knight of St. George. Two starters. Time 1:23. October 7, 1864 The first dash race at less than one mile, for horses of all ages, ever offered in the United States at a recorded meeting: Purse 00, six furlongs, at Secaucus, N; J. Won by Francis Morriss Throgs Neck Jr., by imp. Eclipse. Six starters. Time 1:20 1-2. October 17, 1864. The first dash race at less than one mile, for two-year-olds, ever offered in the West: Sweepstakes, six furlongs, at St. Louis, Mo. Won by B. F. Hutchinsons unnamed b. c. by imp. Eclipse. Time 1:22. Three starters. June 19, 1866 The first stake race for horses of all ages, at less than one mile, ever offered in U. S. A.: Jersey Selling Sweepstakes, one-half mile at Secaucus, N. J. D. McDaniels unnamed ch. m., 5 yrs., by imp. the Knight of St. George, walked over. July 25, 1866. The first dash race at less than one mile, for all ages, ever given over one of the major tracks of New York: Purse of 00, six furlongs at Saratoga. Won by John Hunters b. h. Areola, 5 yrs., by Lexington. Time 1:19. Six starters. Sept. 25, 1866. The first two-year-old event at less than one mile ever given in Kentucky: Sweepstakes, six furlongs, at Lexington; won by J. W. Fords b. f. Woodford Belle, by Lexington. Time 1:23. Three starters. May 7, 1867. The first stake event for two-year-olds at less than one mile ever given, in the South: Young America Stake, six furlongs, at Nashville, Tenn. Won by Johnson and Douglass blk. f. Charlotte Thompson, by imp. Mickey Free. Time 1:21. Five starters. May 23, 1867. The first stake ever given over a New York track, for three-year-olds, at less than one mile: Spring Stake, six furlongs at Jerome Park, N. Y. City; won by Francis Morriss b. f. Ruthless, by imp. Eclipse. Time 1:21. Five starters. June 19, 1867. The first stake event ever given over a New York track for two-year-olds at less than one mile: Hopeful Sweepstakes, five furlongs, at Jerome Park; won by Francis Morriss ch. f. Cleopatra, by imp. Eclipse. Time 1:09. Four starters. August 9, 1867. The first stake for two-year-olds at less than one mile given at Saratoga: Saratoga Stake, six furlongs; won by Francis Morriss ch. f. Relentless, by imp. Eclipse. Time 120. Six starters. September 14, 1867. The first dash race for all ages at less than one mile ever given in Kentucky: Sweepstakes, six furlongs, at Lexington; won by John Harpers gr. g. Style, 3 yrs., by Wagner, Jr. Time 1:18. Five starters. October 11, 1870. The first dash race for all ages at less than one mile ever given over a metropolitan New York track: Sweepstakes, six furlongs, at Jerome Park; won by Francis Morriss gr. f. Felicity, by imp. Eclipse. Time 1:20. Six starters. The twelve races tabulated above may be regarded as truly historic in the light of what was to come after them. They were the path-breakers of the new dispensation that definitely forswore the old-time ideals of the American turf, in which speed, gameness and stamina, combined, with the two qualities last-named strongly stressed, had been dominant; substituting for them speed alone, with gameness and stamina relegated to minor positions and finally, to all intents and purposes, thrown into the discard. As we regard them today, two features of the exhibit are outstanding. The first is the extremely slow time from the modern standpoint that was made in them. Most of them were at six furlongs, and the fastest of the lot was run in but 1:18 by Style, at Lexington, in 1867. Contrasted with our present six-furlong record over a circular course, the 1:09 of Clang, made last fall over the Coney Island course at Cincinnati, this appears on the surface like "hearse-horse, time." But were these old-time pioneer sprinters so much slower than the modern ones as would seem to be the case? No, that was not the fact. The extreme slowness of the time they made was due to two factors which then obtained but long since disappeared. The first of them was the fact that these pioneer sprinters were not horses that were being trained exclusively to race at sprinting distances, as is the modern horse. They were for the most part being trained and raced over distances much longer than any that are. raced in America at the present day. Throgs Neck Jr., winner of the first all ages sprinting race on record six furlongs, Secaucus, N.. J., Oct. 7, 1864 was running about the same time in two-mile races and in heat races over one mile. Areola, which beat Throgs Neck Jr. in the first all ages sprint ever run over a New York track Saratoga, July 25, 1866 just a few days later won at a mile and three-quarters, and later in the season at two-mile heats. Ruthless, winner of the first stake at less than one mile ever presented for three-year-I olds over a New York track Jerome Park, May 23, 1867 won the same .season at two miles and twice at a mile and three-quarters. Style, winner of the first dash race at less than a mile for all ages ever put on in Ken-tucky Lexingtonz Sept. 14, 1867.--just about 1 . that same time ran second in the Louisville Hotel Stakes at Louisville at two-mile heats. As his six furlongs in 1:18 at Lexington was the fastest ever run up to that time, it will readily be seen that it, as well as the time made by the other horses named, was not a real speed index. Horses that are being trained and raced to go two-mile heats cannot, from the modern standpoint, be regarded as conditioned for sprinting in any correct sense. The second fact to be borne, in mind is the tracks these horses were racing over. As compared with those of the present day they were little better than the traditional "cow-path." The two fastest tracks in America in the old ante-bellum days were Metairie, at New Orleans, and Woodlawn, at Louisville. But Metairie was abandoned soon after the war, and so was Woodlawn, and no sprinting was done over either of them, for their managements frowned upon it. All the old-time courses of the period when sprinting was being introduced were rough, deep, heavy, wavy and very, very slow, while the care they received as compared with that bestowed upon the twentieth-century "billiard-table track" was no care at all. Modern track machinery was then still as yet not invented. The old-fashioned planes and harrows were nothing more nor less tlian those used in regular road-building, with perhaps some sort of home-made one thrown in. Nor, of course, had the wheel as yet come full circle, and the modern straightaway for sprinters, the latter-day successor of the ancient race paths of the quarter horses, been introduced. All major courses were then regulation mile ovals with the exception of that at Jerome Park, which was famous for its saddle bag shape, made necessary by the lay of the land. It consisted of two loops, which were joined together by a home stretch which altogether, as the old diagrams show, had very much the same kind of a layout as a pair of nose glasses with a flat bridge across the top. There is another thing that will not fail to strike the close observer as he scans the roster of those twelve pioneer sprinting events. One which is, in its way, most significant. That is the way in which the get of imp. Eclipse came to the front in them. We find no less than six of them on the list, as follows: Throgs Neck, Jr. Won the first all-aged sprint ever given in America at Secaucus, N. J., October 7, 1864. Unnamed two-year-old Won the first dash of less than one mile given in the West for two-years-olds at St. Louis, October 17, 1864. Ruthless Won the first stake event ever given over a New York track at less than, one mile, for three-year-olds, the Spring Stake, at Jerome Park, May 23, 1867. Cleopatra Won the first stake ever given over a New York track at less than one mile, for two-year-olds, the Hopeful, at Jerome Park, June 19, 1867. Relentless Won the first stake ever given at Saratoga at. less than one mile, for two-year-olds, the Saratoga, August 9, 1867. Felicity Won the first dash race for all ages at less than one mile ever given over a metropolitan New York track, at Jerome Park, October 11, 1870. Thus 50 per cent of these introductory sprinting events were won by the get of one and the same sire a most remarkable showing, indeed, and unmistakable proof that here was a family which for pure speed excelled anything else in America. Eclipse was imported in the late summer of 1859 by Richard Ten Broeck, who had raced him in England, where he bought him. He was by Orlando, a horse whose get were considered the fastest ever seen in that country, but whose gameness was under dispute. He made his first season on Long Island in 1860 and was then taken to Kentucky, where he stood in 1861 and 1862, being then returned north on account of the Civil War and passing into the possession of Francis Morris, at whose farm at Throgs Neck, near New York City, he passed the rest of his life. Of the six of his get listed above, five Throgs Neck, Jr., Ruthless, Cleopatra, Relentless and Felicity were all bred by Mr. Morris and brought out and first raced by him. The sixth, the unnamed colt that won at St. Louis in 1864, was one of the foals by Eclipse in Kentucky in 1861, and was bred by Maj. B. G. Thomas, who took Eclipse to the Blue Grass and stood him while he was there. Later on Major Thomas, as is historic, took Alarm, another son of Eclipse, to Kentucky from the north, where he was bred, and among the get of that horse bred by him, Major Thomas, was Himyar, from which horse in turn the major bred Domino and, as all the world knows, the family of Domino is the pre-eminent pure speed, or sprinting family, of America at the present day, and has been for nearly forty years past. In our next chapter Alarm, the grand sire of Domino, will play a prominent part.
