The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-08-07
HISTORY OF RACING
Description Of a 0ld-Paahieaed PslP
nile Heat Racs Viii Fear Entries.

nile Heat Racs Viii Fear Entries.
Lsxingtor's and Ten Broeck's 9uo-
oessful Attack Upon the Record
A Race Between the
North and South.
The history Of horse racing in America
begins soon after the history Of its peo-
pie. The colonists that settled Virginia
look kindly TO hat or any other variety Of
sport, and, soon after il became settled
hat they could live in the new country,
horses were imported, and by the latter
part of the seventeenth century horse rue
ing In q crude way was common In Mary
land and Virginia. The first race course
was established at Charleston, 5. C., In
lbs, and was an innovation rs to form,
being laid out In an accurate OWL, with
the furlongs marked by posts, says r.. L.
b. In the Pioneer Press.
During the next half century, which in
cludes the two struggles for existence
through which the ~colonists passed. the
French and Indian and revolutionary
wars, horse breeding WINS attended TO
principally to supply the army, and there
was little time devoted TO racing. Breed
ing Of blooded horses progressed steadily,
however, for their intrinsic value became
fully appreciated when their superior
powers Of endurance were demonstrated
in the long, hard rides that the leading
men of the new government were COM
PEELED to take in the course of their politi-
cal or military lives. II was several years
after the christening Of the new nation
before there was money enough In the
country TO make q horse ace interesting.
As soon as the country began TO develop
and the financiering ability Of Hamilton
| placed the people In easy circumstances,
| attention was turned toward the develop
ment of speed in the descendants of the
| cavalry horse of the revolution.
Racing events I'm the early part of this
century were nearly always OF the match
race variety, n conducted more al q
matter OF gentlemanly amusement han
a. n business enterprise. Soon after the
| Missouri compromise of 1870 drew a line
across the country and established the
| division between the North and the South,
q horse race was arranged hat has a
double interest historically, as being one
of the first events in which the North was
arrayed against the South, and also as
marking an epoch in racing. II was In
1923 that some Northern gentlemen issued
a challenge TO run the horse American
Eclipse a four-mile heat ace against any
horse bred and owned south of the Mason
and Dixon line. This challenge was
promptly accepted by some Virginia gen
tlemen, and a month before the day set
they started North with a h~alf-dozen race
horses.
II was not known which one Of their
horses would start until they came to the
post, when they slipped the blankets from
Sir Henry and announced him as their
| ratNrnaanfnfiVa- The rare Uyas fnr KHlnM
Congress adjourned, and the members
came by stage coaches and private con
veyances from Washington TO New York
City to see the race. Troops OF Virginians
came North for the same purpose, travel
ing on horseback or In carriages, with q
%retinue of slave servants. Down from the
Hudson river valley came the Van Rens
sellaers, Ten Eycks and Van Groesbecks
INT from all the country tributary to New
York people journeyed TO the race. tn,
first heat was won by Sir Henry: the sec
ond by American Eclipse. Then cam
the battle royal for the third and decisiv,
heat, which was won by the Northern
horse.
For half a century afterward Il was thu
same old grudge, and the memory OF til,
American Eclipse-Sir Henry race wa
kept fresh by frequent less inportan
contests between the North and South
This race, which required II miles Of rae
ing. three four-mile heats, was followed q
few years later by a race that happil.
stands u~nrivalled in the annals OF tn
turf in this or n other country. II wal
a four-mile heat race between a quartz
OF mares, Black Maria, Lady Relief
Trife and Miss Slim. The first two wers
daughters OF American Eclipse and en-
lowed with all Of their sire's Rameness
Trifie won the first heat, the second wen
to Lady Relief, and then Black MariI
captured the third heat. Miss slim
dropped out during the second heat
Here was an interesting condition
Twelve miles had been run n zach o
the trio had q rae to her credit. Tn
crowd went wild and backed their favor
ties for fabulous amounts, farms wer
staked on Inc result and excitement wa
intense when the racers started out 70
the fourth e
Imagine what it must have been whel
the two Eclipse mares, Lady Relief an,
Black Maria swung into the stretch 70
the finish Of the fourth mile, the six
teenth mile OF the race, head and head
They ran al II yoked together through
the stretch. and. despite the most des
perate effort OF their riders. neither wa
able To gain an inch n they passe,
under the wire ON even terms. Then fol
lowed q scene that !. quite as unrivale'
mare claimed that they had won. Lou,
talk Of protecting their rights with pistol
was INDUCED in, and the judges put
quietus upon all arguments in the matte
by deciding Il 10 be a dead heat. In thi
g of short races Il appears that IL mus
q been the extremity Of cruelty 20 an
mails TO race these mares the fifth tim
over a fourmile course.
Gentlemen who were present have toll
me that none Of the horses appeared PAL
ticularly distressed, but II seems incred
ible that they should not be. In the fift
heat Trifie CAV IL up as n hopeless tas
in the nineteenth mile. and left II TO
struggle between the sisters. of whor
Black Maria proved the better and wor
No such race has ever been run since tha