Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-08-24
THE CALIFORNIA TURF. aa - i.fi
sesFgOTg ~ -oi--ai'99i9 y1f3Msae
Calff0rnfa NIustaBes Run Two
fsandI ed MILES I'm a LitiIe Over
Eight Hours. =. Issa 81 is.

"A correspondent of the Chicago; Tn
5asae, writing from San Francisco, under
date of August Sd. gives an account of
California mustang race. He says:
About month since party of horse
men were discussing the comparative
merits of imported blooded stock and
thecommon California mustangs, and the
different styles of riding, when Edward
Whipple offered to bet 50 son tasaiust
$4,000 that no man could be found to
ride 800 miles in fifteen hours. He
was at once taken up by Louis Burns
and John ,Cahill, who named N. H.
Mowery as the man to ride. The match
was all agreed upon on the spot; since
then there has been constant betting
going on as to the result. You will see
that he must average mile every three
minttes for fifteen consecutive hours,
allowing nothing for loss of time in
changing horses at every second, third
or fourth mile, accidents, or unaccounta-
BILE delays. The general feeling was
that he never could succeed. and in bet.
ting the odds were decidedly against,
him. Yesterday Sunday, Aug. 2,J was
fixed on for this race against time. ,3si p l /,
The race took place at Bay View
Park, few miles north of the city, over
a mile track. The animals, thirty in
number, selected by Mr.. Mowery, were
the common California mustangs and
halfbreeds, none of them full-sized, but
ali formed of the indomitable pluck and
liferwhich belong to the descendants of
the gallant fleets which were ridden in
to Spain by the fiery followers of Musa
and Taric, when, at the bidding of the
Commander of the Faithful, the con-
querers of Africa poured into Europe,
there to spread the knowledge of the
true God and the law of the Koran. Mr..
Mowery is an old Californian, apparent.
ly of about the middle age, weighs one
hundred and sixty pounds, and rode
with a heavy Mexican California sad
die, Spanish bit and free rein. i5.7 -
At 40 o'clock in the morning he
sprang into the saddle and rode the first
horse four times around the track-that
is to say four miles-at a dead run.
Attendants stood ready at the stand to
saddle and bring out the fresh horses as
he beckoned for them in coming around
and he changed animals rapidly, riding
none of them three miles after the first,
and few of them more than two. The
Mexican dodge of crushing" was
constantly resorted to. An attendant
would ride one-fourth or one-third of
the way down the track to meet him as
he came in wheeling his horse, ride
back just behind him yelling, vamos!
vonsosL Lsohoop-ah 0anosI and swinging
his hat as if frantic. This would start
the tagging animals into redoubled ex-
ertions, and he would come in fairly fly
ing. A single sharp pull on the Spanish.
bit would stop the animal in second,
and in two or three more the rider
would be on fresh animal and off
again. Sometimes the mile or two miles
would be ridden one way around the
track, sometimes the other, in order to
relieve the rider by changes as far as
practicable. Early in the morning the
race track was crowded with people, and
before two p. M. the jam was immense.-
Upto twelve M. the rider refused all as
sistance in mounting and remounting
but after that his attendants would occa-
sionaIy give him a lift, apparently not
so much because he required it as for
fear that he might do SO before the race
was over. At the end of two hundred
miles a rest was taken, and placard
was displayed about the judges stand
that the two hundred miles had been ac-
complished in eighthours, two minutes
and forty-eight seconds beating by
40 minutes thstime made by Mr.. Osbaldi-
ston, with race horses in England. Then
the start was made on the third hundred
miles, Mr.. Mowery having had bath
and otherwise refreshing himself, and ap-
pearing good for the two hundred miles