In 1869 the National Trotting Association was formed, under which an elaborate code of rules has been published.
In trotting races, it will be noted, the time test is supreme, differing from running races, in which time is of comparatively little consequence. The animal which has the fastest record for 1 mile in harness is, until deposed, the king or queen of the trotting turf. Lady Suffolk, with her record of 2 m. 26½ s., in 1843, held this honour until 1853, when Tacony trotted in 2 m. 25½ s. under saddle; Flora Temple wrested it from him in 1856 by trotting in 2 m. 24½ s. in harness. This latter mare, in 1859, trotted a mile in 2 m. 19¾ s., a feat which the best horsemen thought would never be repeated, but since that time forty-two trotters have beaten 2 m. 20 s. Dexter’s record was 2 m. 17¼ s. in 1867, and Goldsmith Maid’s in 1871 was 2 m. 17 s., which she reduced, by successive efforts, to 2 m. 16¾ s., 2 m. 16 s., 2 m. 15 s., 2 m. 14¾ s., and finally, in 1874, to 2 m. 14 s. In 1878 Rarus trotted a mile in 2 m. 13¼ s., and in October 1879 the bay gelding St Julien, by Volunteer, son of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, dam by Henry Clay, trotted a mile in California in 2 m. 12¾ s. Other notable performances reducing the record were Maud S. in 1881, 2 m. 10¼ s.; Maud S. in 1885, 2 m. 8¾ s.; Sunol in 1891, 2 m. 8¼ s.; Nancy Hanks in 1892, 2 m. 4 s.; Alix in 1894, 2 m. 3¾ s.; Cresceus in 1901, 2 m. 2¼ s.; Lou Dillon in 1905, 1 m. 58½ s. Improved times have doubtless been the result of improved methods, as well as of care in the breeding of the trotter. Some very severe training rules used to be sedulously observed; about 1870, for instance, a horse never had water the night before a race, and the system generally appears to have overtaxed the animal’s strength. A prominent consideration in trotting races is the adjustment of toe-weights, which are fastened on to the horses’ feet to equalize their action, and it is found that horses improve their time to the extent of several seconds when properly shod.
Pacing races are also frequent in the United States. In trotting the action may be described as diagonal; the pacer moves both legs on the same side at the same time, and both feet stride as one. A similar “gait,” to employ the American term, was called in England some centuries ago an “amble.” The pacer moves more easily and with apparently less exertion than the trotter, and the mile record (made by Prince Alert in 1903) stands at 1 m. 57 s.
Owing to the vast size of the country there are various centres of sport, which can be classified with reasonable accuracy as follows: the Eastern States, dominated by the Jockey Club, founded in New York in 1894, and recognized by a state law in 1895; the Middle Western States, under the control of the Western Jockey Club, whose headquarters are in Chicago; the Pacific Coast, with San Francisco for its centre; and the Southern and South-Western States, with Louisville as the most important centre. The passage of the racing law in New York State marked the opening of a new era. Supreme even over the Jockey Club is a State Racing Commission of three, appointed by the governor of the state. While the Jockey Club is only recognized by law in its native state, it has assumed and maintains control of all racing on the eastern seaboard, within certain lines of latitude and longitude, extending as far north as the Canadian border and south to Georgia. There is small question that other states, both east and west, will follow suit and enact similar laws. The Western Jockey Club, though not recognized by law, controls practically all the racing through the middle west, south-west and south; but the racing associations of the Pacific Coast have maintained a position of independence.
What New York is to the east, Chicago is to the middle west, and a very large proportion of American racing is conducted close to these centres. In New York State the Coney Island Jockey Club, at Sheepshead Bay; the Brooklyn Jockey Club, at Gravesend; the Westchester Racing Association, at Morris Park; the Brighton Beach Racing Association, at Brighton Beach; the Queen’s County Jockey Club, at Aqueduct; and the Saratoga Racing Association, at Saratoga, are the leading organizations; and all these race-courses, with the exception of Saratoga, are within a radius of 20 miles of the city. The Empire City Jockey Club, near Yonkers, and another club with headquarters near Jamaica, Long Island, have also become prominent institutions. The Washington Park Club, at Chicago, is the leading Turf body of the west, and the only one on an equal footing with the prominent associations of New York State. With this single exception the most important and valuable stakes of the American Turf are given in the east; and so great has the prosperity of the Turf been since the Jockey Club came into existence that the list of rich prizes is growing at a surprising rate. In this respect the principal fault is the undue encouragement given to the racing of two-year-olds. At the winter meetings held at New Orleans and San Francisco, two-year-olds are raced from the very beginning of the year; and under the rules of the Jockey Club of New York they run as early as March. The Westchester Racing Association, with which are closely identified some of the principal members of the Jockey Club, gives valuable two-year-old stakes in May. The Futurity Stakes, the richest event of the year—on one occasion it reached a value of $67,675—is for two-year-olds, and is run at Sheepshead Bay in the autumn. The institution of races, either absolutely or practically at weight-for-age, and over long courses, has engaged much attention. The Coney Island Jockey Club has the leading three-year-old stake in the Lawrence Realization, over 1 mile 5 furlongs, with an average value of about $30,000. The Westchester Racing Association’s two principal three-year-old stakes, the Withers, over a mile, run in May, and the Belmont, 1 mile and 3 furlongs, run later in the same month, are of less value, but are much older-established and have a species of “classic” prestige, dating from the old Jerome Park race-course in the ’sixties. The Coney Island Jockey Club’s Century and the Annual Champion Stakes, both for three-year-olds and upwards, over a mile and a half and two miles and a quarter respectively, are fair specimens of the races the associations have founded. At Saratoga a stake of $50,000 for three-year-olds and upwards, distance a mile and a quarter, was opened, and run for first in 1904. The hope is to wean owners from the practice of overtaxing their two-year-olds, which has resulted practically in a positive dearth, almost a total absence, of good four-year-olds and upwards of late years. Handicaps play a more important part than in England. The principal events of this character, such as the Brooklyn Handicap at Gravesend and the Suburban at Sheepshead Bay, have for years drawn the largest attendances of the racing season.
Practically all flat racing in the United States is held on “dirt-tracks,” i.e. courses with soil specially prepared for racing, instead of turf courses. At Sheepshead Bay there is a turf course, but it is only used for a minority of races. Dirt-tracks, which are, like many other things in American racing, a legacy from the once hugely popular harness-racing, are conducive to great speed, but are costly in the extreme strain on horses’ legs. Steeplechases are run on turf. This branch of the sport in the east is now flourishing under the administration of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association, a sister body of the Jockey Club. Comparatively few races are, however, run under these rules, as the weather conditions render it impossible to have a separate season for cross-country sport and steeplechases, and hurdle races are incorporated in programmes of flat racing held through the spring, summer and autumn, though the ground is frequently so hard as to be unsafe. Since the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association assumed control, regulation courses, practically similar in every respect to those used in England, have been insisted upon in the east, the “open ditch” figuring under the name of the “Liverpool.” In the west and south there is not the same uniformity, and so far the sport has not flourished.
France
Racing in France as conducted on modern lines may be said to date from the year 1833, when the French Stud-Book was originated, and a body formed, somewhat after the model of the English Jockey Club, under the title of the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Amélioration des Races de Chevaux en France. Races took place in the Champs de Mars, and an unsuccessful attempt was made in 1834 to arrange for a course, or “hippodrome,” as it is termed in France, at Maisons Laffitte. Chantilly was, however, fixed upon as the principal racing centre; on the 22nd April 1836 the first meeting was held there, with five races on the card, the principal being the Prix d’Orléans, a stake of 3500 francs, named after the due d’Orléans, one of the chief promoters of the fixture. Next day the first race for the Prix du Jockey Club was run, and won by Frank, the property of Lord Henry Seymour, who was at the time taking a very active part in French sport. The Prix du Jockey Club was then worth 5000 francs; the value has since increased to 200,000 francs. This race occupies in France the place of the English Derby. The Prix de Diane, which corresponds to the English Oaks, was first run in 1843. Chantilly still continues an important centre of the French Turf, and a great many horses are trained in the district. Attempts had been made to popularize racing at Longchamps prior to the year 1856, when the Société d’Encouragement obtained a lease, erected stands, laid out the course, and held their first meeting on the 27th August 1857. Next season two meetings were held, one of four days in the spring and another of three in the autumn; at the present time the sport is vigorously carried on from March to the end of October, except during a summer recess. In 1857 meetings under the auspices of the Société d’Encouragement began to take place at Amiens, Caen, Nantes, Versailles, Moulins and other towns; and there were stakes for two-year-olds in the spring, though of late years the appearance of the young horses has been postponed to the 1st of August. Progress was rapid, and in 1863 two important events were contested for the first time, the Prix du Prince Impérial, which was designed to balance the English St Leger, but for obvious reasons faded out of the programme, and the Grand Prix de Paris, an international race for three-year-olds, run at Longchamps over a distance of 1 mile 7 furlongs, and now the most valuable stake in Europe. In 1909 the prize was £14,071. The first Grand Prix fell to an English horse, Mr Savile’s The Ranger; two years later it was won by Gladiateur, winner of the English Derby and the property of the comte de Lagrange, who raced equally in France and in England; the duke of Beaufort’s Ceylon was successful in 1866, and the marquis of Hastings’ Earl in 1868. Mr Savile’s Cremorne followed up his Derby victory by a victory at Longchamps in 1872, as did Mr Baltazzi’s Kisber four years later. English horses were also victorious in 1874 (Mr W. R. Marshall’s Trent), in 1878 (Prince Soltykoff’s Thurio), in 1880 (Mr C. Brewer’s Robert the Devil), in 1881 (Mr Keene’s Foxhall, who, however, should rather rank as an American horse), in 1882 (Mr Rymill’s Bruce), in 1885 (Mr Cloete’s Paradox), in 1886 (Mr Vyner’s Minting); and in 1906 Major Eustace Loder’s Derby winner Spearmint. During the first 23 years of the Grand Prix (owing to the war the race did not take place in 1871) the stake fell to English horses—if Kisber and Foxhall be included—on twelve occasions, and generally to English jockeys. In recent years, however, French owners have held their own. In not a few respects racing is managed more judiciously than in England. The courses, for one thing, are better tended and maintained. The five- and six-furlong races for others than two-year-olds, which are so common at English meetings, are comparatively rare in France, and the value of the prizes in an average day’s racing is considerably higher across the Channel than in England. A very large percentage of trainers and jockeys are English, and the former are, as a rule, quite as expert as at Newmarket and elsewhere. Transatlantic methods have been introduced by American jockeys since 1899. From the middle of February until the middle of December a race meeting within easy reach of Paris takes place almost every day, except during August, when the sport is carried on in the provinces, notably at Deauville. Near Paris, the chief centre after Longchamps is Maisons Laffitte. At Longchamps, early in October, a race called the Prix du Conseil Municipal, worth £4000, for three-year-olds and upwards, over a mile and a half, was organized in 1893, and has usually attracted English horses, Mr Wallace Johnstone’s Best Man having been successful in 1894, and Mr Sullivan’s Winkfield’s Pride the following year. Except when the Whip is challenged for and the challenge decided over the Beacon Course at Newmarket, no race is run in England over a longer distance than two miles and 6 furlongs; but in France the Prix Gladiateur, of £1200 and a work of art value £100, 3 miles 7 furlongs, creates considerable interest at Longchamps in the autumn.
The first recognized steeplechase in France took place at Croix de Berny, and was won by the comte de Vaublanc’s May-fly, all the horses at that time being ridden by gentlemen. Sport does not seem to have been Steeplechasing. carried on with much spirit, for it is said that the death of an animal called Barcha, in 1839, nearly led to the abandonment of the meeting; and it was not till 1863, when the Société des Steeplechases de France was founded, that the business was resolutely taken in hand. Gravelle and Vincennes were the principal centres until 1873, when the Société obtained possession of the ground at Auteuil, where the excellent course now in use was laid out. In 1874 twelve days’ racing took place here, the card each day including three steeplechases and a hurdle race, the “hurdles,” however, being small fences, as they are at present. The Grand Steeplechase d’Auteuil was then for a stake of 30,000 francs, at the time the most valuable offered in any country; but, as in racing on the flat, the stakes have enormously increased in value, and in 1901 the Paris Grand Steeplechase, as the chief event is now called, credited the winner with £6020, the hurdle race being worth rather more than half as much. In England there is scarcely any steeplechasing between March and November, except at hunt meetings, but in Paris cross-country sport is pursued almost all through the year, the chief races at Auteuil taking place in June, about the time of the Grand Prix, which is usually run for between the English Epsom and Ascot meetings. The Auteuil course is laid out in the shape of the figure 8, with varied fences, several of which really test a horse’s jumping capacity; and variety is further obtained by starting the fields in different places and traversing the course in different ways. St Ouen, a meeting within half an hour’s drive of the Louvre, is entirely devoted to steeplechasing; and jumping is also carried on at Vincennes, Colombes, Enghien, and elsewhere near Paris, as also at Nice in the winter, at Dieppe and other places in August. As a rule, the stakes run for, especially at Auteuil, are very much larger than in England. There are none of the clubs and special enclosures such as at Sandown, Kempton, Hurst, Lingfield, Gatwick, &c., though portions of the stand are set apart for privileged persons. A fee of 20 francs is charged for admission to the chief French race-courses, with half as much for a lady’s voucher, and the tickets give access everywhere but to the very few reserved portions. At Vincennes, St Cloud, and some other courses trotting races are also contested.
Other Countries.—Racing in Germany is mainly conducted under the authority of the Union Club of Berlin, the principal course being the Hoppegarten. Two-year-olds do not run until the 1st of June, except in Saxony, where they appear a month earlier. During the month of August there are several days’ racing at Baden-Baden, steeplechases as well as flat races being run. Some of the more valuable stakes are usually contested by a proportion of horses from France and other countries, a few being occasionally sent from England. For years past blood-stock has been imported from England. In Austria the two centres of racing are Vienna and Budapest, each of which has its Jockey Club. Racing in Belgium derives no little support from the contiguity of the country to France. The headquarters of the Belgium Jockey Club are in the Bois de la Cambre at Boisfort, and meetings are held at Ostend, Antwerp, Spa, Bruges and elsewhere. Steeplechases take place at Groenenval and on other Belgian courses, but are not of high class. Racing has not reached a great degree of excellence in Italy, though attempts have been made to improve competitors by the purchase of Melton, who won the Derby of 1885, and of other notable animals. Meetings take place at Florence, Padua, Bologna and other places, but the stakes are usually small.