AMERICAN THOROUGHBREDS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1781, 5 November 1879, Page 3

AMERICAN THOROUGHBREDS.

(.From " The Field."] Tlie moat noteworthy feature in connection with the recent American entries for English races is that they emanate, without exception, from citizens of the Northern States, Previous to the stupendous civil war which, between 1861 and 1865, so nearly rent the American union twain, there waa a characteristic difference between the races of the northern and of the southern sections of the great republic. For at least a century previous to the electron of Abraham Lincoln as

President, Ecglish thoroughbreds had been

imported by North and South alike; but the purpose with which they were brought across the sea diffe.-ed not less widely than the characters and habits of the New Englanders from those of the Virginians. la the North, the thoroughbred was introduced in order to improve the trotter; in the Bouth, he was put to the same uses as a galloper which had gained for him a reputation for fleetness in I the mother country. The habitual locoI motion of the Northerner was peiformed upon wheels, and led naturally to the development of the trotting: horse ; while in the Bouth nearly every white male, and many of the females, rode upon horseback, and hence arose that partiality for the galloping Turf which prevailed among Southern planters until the Civil War made them too poor to indu'ge in it, Air Parton tells us, in his " Life of Andrew Jackson." published in 1861, that "to this day the horse is of far more importance, at the South, where everyouo rides upon horseback, than at the North, where riding is the luxury of the few. The consequence is that the qualities prized in the horse are those which fit him to bear his master along with grace, spirit, and speed—the qualities which are summed up in the word thoroughbred. At an early day, therefore, we find the Tenneeseeans devoting great attention to the rearing of high-bred horses —a business afterwards stimulated by their passion for the Turf " Thus we find that, in 1805, General Jackson set off from Nashville, in Tennessee, upon a tour in Virginia, then universally renowned for her breed of horses, with the sole object of procuring the most perfect animal in the country. The far-famed Truxton was the result of this journey, himself the winner of many a wellconteßted race, and progenitor of a line highly prized in Tennesee to this hour. " There is a gentleman," adds Mr Parton, "living near Nashville today, who owns many thoroughbred horses, not one of which had a pedigree less than two hundred years long." It will be noticed by students of the early volumes of our " Stud Book " that, as regards the thoroughbreds imported from England into the United States, in nine cases out. of ten occur the words " sent to Virginia "or" to South Carolina." It was the fashion with George Washington, and with all the Southern planters who took their tone from him, to emulate the example and habits of the higher classes in England Despite the revolution which robbed England of her American colonies, the gentlemen of the South still retained a lively affection for the parent country from which they had torn themselves free. Dean Stanley tells us that, during the coronation of George 111., the largest jew 1 fell from the crown, which was afterwards believed to have foretold the loss of America. During the recent civil war, the regret that the revolutionary struggle commencing in 1776 had ever taken place, found frequent expression from Virginian lips, and in more than one historical country house in the " Old Dominion " a picture of George 111. may still be seen, which, surviving the revolution, has not even to this hour been lowered from the pride of place. Since the war there is but one Southern State, Kentucky, which has retained enough of its former wealth and prosperity to be able to indulge in the pursuit of horse-racing according to the type which gave birth in the South to such famous gallopers as Boston, who was foaled, at. Richmond in Virginia, and as Lexington, the son of Boston, who was foaled at the place in Kentucky from which he takes his name. The racecourses in Virginia and South Carolina have, since 1865, been as deserted as the fine homes of the planters who once brought their best horses to compete at Richmond, Williamsberg, and Charleston, while the names of Wickham, Wade Hampton, and Minor Botts have disappeared from the American Stud Book. We believe that the son of Thomas W. Doswell, of Virginity by the latter of whom the renowned Planet was bred in

1855, still retaiss a few thoroughbreds ; but the glory of the galloping Turf has, in con- , tradistinction to our experience in England, been transplanted from the South to the North, and more good gallopers are now raised in the States of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey than all the rest of the Union. . Simultaneously the system o! horse racing has in the North undergone a complete revolution, and, although the trotting Turf has still no lack of supporters, it is unquestionably becoming less fashionable than its galloping rival. Mr Sanford, Mr liorillard, and Mr Keene, by whom entries have been made for our Derby of ISBI, are all of them Northern men, and the races at Jerome Park, at Saratoga, over the Fashion course at Long Island, at Long Branch, at Baltimore, and at Monmouth Park, conform more and more to the pattern set at Newmarket, Ascot, and still more at Sandown Park. The importation from England of Leamington, who was purchased for 1500 guineas by Mr E. W. Cameron, and sold by him to Mr A. Welch, of Chesnut Hill, near Philadelphia, undoubtedly served as a turning point in the history of the Turf in the Northern States, and the double winner of the Chester Cup has the credit of being the sire of Lyttelton, who won many good races in America, and of Parole, who has this year gained such distinction upon the British Turf. Firtd by emulative zeal, Mi Keene, who bears a high reputation for wealth, integrity, and enterprise in New York and San Francisco, has given evidence that he hopes to follow in the footsteps of Mr Pierro Lorillard, and at this moment he ia the owner of Spendthrift, the best three-year-old upon the American Turf. In England we have never grudged the victories gallantly won upon our racecourses by foreign rivals ; but, upon the principle that " blood is thicker than water," we have never brought ourselves to regard our American kinsmen foreigners. Admiral Rous once remarked that our motto has always been " Let the best horse win I " and if ever the day should arise when an American colour catches the judge's eye in the great race at Epsom or Doncaster, it needs no prophet to foretell that the heartiest of English cheers will ascend to greet the winner. Within the last century, thousands upon thousands of American dollars have been paid for English thoroughbreds, and there is no reason why the descendants of such superb sires as Diomed, Priam, Glencoe, Scythian, Fly by Night, Leamington, Trustee, and Bonnie Scotland should not return to the country which cave birth to their progenitors, and eucceesfully emulate their prowess upon the British Turf. California, "the golden State,' boast t that her climate is specially adapted for the raiding of fleet thoroughbreds, and with tho rapid growth of her wealth, she will not long be without her representative owners of horses in the countiy which has still no rival in the equine world. It is, indeed, maintained by Mr Frank Morris — who is the finest judge of racing in the United States, ani whose horses are now

under the care of Mr Pry or, by whom Prioress, Stjrke, and Umpire were trained in England for Mr Ten Brocck—that the conditions of soil and climate under which thoroughbreds are bred in tho New World make it probable that the prediction uttered by the compilers of our Stud Book in 1822 is soon likely to be verified upon our own racecourses. An American stallion, Preakne j B, brought to this country by Mr Sandford, has passed into the possession of the Duke of Hfrr.il!on, and hia progeny may not improbably make their mark before another year has flown among their English compeers. The timo is at hand when the colours of Americans will be as well known at Epsom and Newmarket as those of Count Lagrange, and it is to the credit of Englishmen that our races are open without jealonpy to the competition of strangers, whether hailing from France, Germany, Hungary, or from our latest rival, the United States.