Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-16
THOROUGHBRED STEEDS.
Il Pen Picture # the GREATEST Horse -Nar-
ket IN the World.

Il Pen Picture u the GREATEST Horse -Nar-
ket IN the WOrtd.
Correspondence of the Philadelphia Press.
LEXINGTON, KY, Nov. 2.-"Here is the,
greatest horse market in the world,' said
United States Senator James B.. Beck to
me while sitting upon the porch of the
leading hotel of this little city a few days,
ago. "Our people get more here for
horses than they do in New York. There
are at least two scores of foreign horse
buyers here constantly" One need not
spend more than an hour here to ascertain
the truth of Senator Beck's remark,
for from first to last you
have nothing but ''horse" anywhere
in this community. Pictures of fine
horses are the principal decorations of
private as we'll as public houses; and it is
the ambition of every man to breed a
horse, I'M or ~trotter, that will astonish
the world. They live upon that hope, as
the gold miner lives upon his dreams of
wealth being just beneath the last stroke
of his pick. / do not mean to leave the
impression that they are haphazard in
their hopes of fame for their horses, or
superstitious in their methods. Nor do
they breed horses upon merely theoretical
principles. 1t is the practical man who
achieves success here, as everywhere else.
Almost every man here who owns a farm
breeds blooded horses; it is the one indus
try that overshadows all the rest, and
caves its distinctive marks upon the,
nomenclature and business of the COM
munity the same as manufacturing does
upon New England, or the iron industry
does upon Pennsylvania. To be sure, they
raise corn and make the finest whisky, and
gather a good deal of wheat from their
fertile acres, but these seem to be simply
incidents of business for these people.
rather than a general occupation.
Nature really seems to have combined
her gifts to make this region peculiarly
adapted to the breeding of fine horses.
TIL blue grass seems to be of a peculiarly
n%ourishing character, and it keeps green
and is good pasture the whole year
round While the frosts of winter destroy
most other heritage, this famous
grass seems like an evergreen, and in the
midst of winter stock feed upon it with
avidity. The people here claim that the.
characteristics of the grass make it easier
to raise stock here than anywhere else in
the world, and that and the fact that both
o40 SO4tS SoA SOC 1ICSuR grass
all winter, together with the salubrious
climate, develops colts twice as rapidly as
in any other part of the country. Whether
this be true or not, certain it is thai year
ling colts, as well as two and three-year-
olds, are further developed here than colts
a year older bred at the North. Then, too,
the climate or the grass, or both COM
bined, seem to give a warmth to the blood,
a style and a spirit to the animal, that are
rarely found in horses bred in a more Wig
orous climate.
Lexington is the center of this blue grass
region, the point at which all this valuable
horse interest has its focus, and, therefore,,
you get the essence of the whole horse bus
mess in this pretty little city and its
environs. Within the radius of a dozen
miles are a score or more famOuSbreeding
establishments. Some of them breed trot-
ting horses exclusively, some breed rioters
and runners alike, while others breed only
thoroughbreds. The old breeders look
with misgivings upon the growth of the
trotting horse interest; they look upon
this region as the natural home of the
American thoroughbred, and they do not
like to see the mixture or the coarser blood
necessary to produce ~trotters mingled with
it. Many of them rather regard with con-
tempt the breeding and development of
the t~rotter, yet this does not hinder the
growth of the trotting horse interest, and
every year witnesses its increasing import
ance. 1t is impossible to convey with the
pen the peculiarities of this section and its
breeding establishments, or of the almost
fabulous sums of money that are pad
here every season for horses and colts.