Discussing the merits of the horses stood a group of the famous horsemen of the day: Tom Lee, of Virginia; Mason, of Gunstan Hall, and De Lancey, of New York—when The Dulaney joined them.
“’Sdeath, De Lancey!” he cried, in his hearty voice, “and right glad am I to see you here. These spindling bets of fifty or a hundred pounds please me not. I want gold, man, gold, I say!” Laughing carelessly, he flicked a speck of dust from his coat sleeve with a white linen handkerchief.
“Gold? Egad, so do I!” answered the rollicking De Lancey. “What say you to a peck of gold? Neither do I deal in quarters and halves.”
“Make it a struck bushel of Spanish dollars, and I will back my horse against yours or the field!” cried the Southerner.
The bet made was perhaps the most sensational money-bet ever made on the Annapolis course.
Deafening cheers rent the air as The Dulaney’s horse finished the one-mile circle a nose ahead.
From Linsley’s “Morgan Horses”
JUSTIN MORGAN.
“THOU SHALT BE TO MAN A SOURCE OF HAPPINESS AND WEALTH.”—MAHOMET