The Washington herald., 1908-06-21
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
South First FOStered Sport
in This Country.
WASHINGTON ONCE A JUDGE
Acted I'm Capacity Of Race official
in State of Virginia at Time
when the sport of Kings Was
Center OF Social Life-EarIy His
tory of the Turf I'm England.

New York State lost certain accompani-
ments 10 a sport which itself is as old
as kings. when Otto Foelker was carried
into the senate chamber al Albany to
cast his vote in favor Of the Hart-Agnew
racing laws Running horses have hg-
ured in history. and what passed for his
tory before that, ever since the hrst Wild
Huntsman started on his chase after the
Judgment Day, away back in the time
of Odin.
England has been known to the Old
World as the home OF that best of all
horsefiesh, the racer No one seems to
chronicle when racing began in England
But coming down bit. We find Newman
ket Heath in full swing in the reign of
James /, and as James wasn't the first
or last sporting monarch in the 'merrie"
/ island, the place may bc assumed TO
have been kingly pastime for some sew
eral years. Though horse racing flour
ished there through the seventeenth and
early eighteenth centuries. Il was. accord
! ing to some authorities, not until the
advent of Eclipse that the present day
race horse began 70 be bred.
Eclipse was bred in the stable Of his
royal highness the Duke Of Cumberland
in 1864. Eclipse changed hands several
times. His third master. one Col O'Kel-
~ it is said. cleared E25.00O from his
services as sire. Eclipse was never
beaten.
odds 20 to L on Eclipse.
Odds OF 20 10 l were laid on his last race
in the Newmarket meeting. Eight hun
dred and hfty-two races were won by le2
horses sired by him. 1t was while Eclipse
was in his glory that the three great Eng
lish turf events were inaugurated: The
ST. Leger in 117S. the Oaks in 1779 and the
/ Derby Of EPSON Downs in 1850 Ameri-
cans should be grateful to England for
/ the thoroughbred. There is hardly a race
horse worthy Of the name running to-day
that does not go back TO English stock.
| Columbus brought the first horses to
America. He landed them on the isthmus
400 years before canals. In 1927 Cabeza de
/ Yaca lghtened his ship by dropping sew
eral animals in Florida. Later the In
dians used these same horses on the wild
Western plains. Tiey are the native"
stock, the present bronchos.
The first imported sire OF fame was
Bulle Rock. He reached the Old Domin-
ion in 1880. Many well-bred horses had
undoubtedly arrived in America before
him, but there are no records 10 show
/ them by name or deed Virginia. the
Carolinas, and Maryland were the places
Of early racing. Here men AT home with
horse and sword and debts had settled
Poor Taste of Dutch.
New Netherlands, in old New York s
Dutch days. did not care for thin-legged.
heavy-veined horses. The ability to carry
quantity was the first requisite among the
points Of a good horse from the Dutch
point OF view. Speed was an uncongenial
/ accomplishment
As for New England. the frappe Puritan
was a poor lover of the beast that won
Great Darius the Persian throne It was
not until 1923 that the animals reached
! Boston.
The Southern colonies for years dis
puted among themselves over racing SUI
premacy. The palm would first be held at
| Charleston, then on the James. and later
at Annapolis. Regular race meetings were
held before the defeat OF Gen. Braddock
/ in 1853. Washington was a Judge at a
/ Newmarket meet In Virginia. Racing be-
came the center Of social life. even the
church giving a liberal sanction
/ Mr. James De Lancey imported four
well-bred horses into New York between
1760 and 176S. These were the nuclei OF
the thoroughbreds in the North BY the
time the Revolutionary War broke out
scientific breeding had reached such ar
advanced stage that first-class horses
could be found in any good community
between Long Island and Georgia When
the snow was on the ground and time
dragged, the British searched the country
for good cavalry horses.
Racing on Long Island.
About Revolutionary time, too, Ions
Island became the scene Of the first
Northern racing Not till years later did
It occupy the position it held in the
South. The Northern turf was not con.
Quoted on systematic basis until 1915
The earliest and best turf development
took place in South Carolina.
Dr. Irving, for nearly forty years sec
retary of the South Carolina Jockey Club.
left a complete record of the races and
studs of the South Carolina OF his time.
Virginia had no such faithful chronicler
as fell to the lot of South Carolina. and
though she boasted noble line of horses
prior TO the Revolution. their records are
incomplete. The old Dominion was the