A few days ago William H. Vanderbilt was more envied for being the owner of Maud S. than for bein’ the richest man in the world; for Maud S. was regarded, and justly, as the one fastest horse in the world. But to-day Vanderbilt’s nose is out of joint, and Maud S. is no longer queen of the turf. Jay-Eye-See has beaten the famous mare’s time of 2:10 ¼ and has made for himself a record of 2:10. The world of horsemen and racin’ men who worshiped at the shrine of Maud S. have already thrown up their caps in huzzas for her conqueror.
There is nothin’ new in all this. It is human nature to worship the risin’ sun, and this Maud S. and Jay-Eye-See business is just a repetition on a more extended scale of the episode of Lady Suffolk and Tacony, which took place thirty years ago.
Some years before I settled in New York the great mare Lady Suffolk, the Maud S. of her day and generation, had beaten all previous trottin’ records by trottin’ under the saddle over the Beacon course in the then unheard, even undreamed of time, 2:26 ½.
We smile at this now; but nobody smiled at it then, but everybody wondered and scarcely believed it. And naturally enough; years before that the great standard of trottin’ time was 2:40; and anybody who had an animal that could cover a mile in that time was a boss sport. To tell the truth, there are not so very many horses who can do better than this to-day. But gradually the record had been lowered, till Lady Suffolk’s time was considered as the ne plus ultra, to do a little Latin.
Lady Suffolk was then queen of the turf, and the little children who played at horse races, as many often did, always tried to be Lady Suffolks. “The Lady” was a name to conjure by. There were Lady Suffolk neckties, Lady Suffolk boots and Lady Suffolk bonnets. Everythin’ and everybody smart and fast was compared to my Lady Suffolk.
But there was a horse called Tacony, a roan gelding, sired by the old racer Tippoo, and owned by a Philadelphia gentleman, who lived at Tacony, on the Delaware River, not far from the Quaker City, and who called his horse after the place.One fine day in September, thirty-two years ago, at a race course near Philadelphia, Tacony trotted a race with two other crack horses of the day, Zachary Taylor and Black Ralph, under saddle.
In this memorable race Tacony ran one of the heats of a mile in 2:26, thus beatin’ Lady Suffolk’s time by half a second, twice as much as Jay-Eye-See has beaten Maud S.
To make this feat still more remarkable, under the circumstances, Tacony beat Lady Suffolk’s time not by a sort of furious spurt or accident, but in a third heat–the last heat of the race–after having already trotted two heats in 2:28 and 2:29. Whereas, Lady Suffolk had made her record in the very first heat of the great race, and had not repeated it afterwards nor came anywhere near it. So sportsmen were justified in regardin’ Tacony’s performance as doubly remarkable.
After that for a while everybody was for Tacony. The Lady Suffolk scarves and boots and bonnets became Tacony scarves, etc., and the little children ceased to fight in their games about being Lady Suffolks and insisted upon bein’ all Taconys. It was the way of the world.
Lady Suffolk had been queen of the turf for nine years, but Tacony was only king of the turf for four. At the end of that period Flora Temple came along and trotted a mile in 2:24 ½, beatin’ and dethronin’ at once Tacony, and setting men, women and children Flora Temple mad, till the next lowerin’ of the record. But Tacony’s reign, while it lasted, was a glorious one. He beat every horse he raced with, and his owner thought he had the finest trottin’ horse in the world. He not only beat Lady Suffolk’s time, but beat Lady Suffolk herself on the Union Course, L. I. He raced with the famous Mac, and won five races to Mac’s five, keepin’ the thing up even for five seasons.
But Tacony had to die at last as a racer, but he died hard. He kept on trottin’ till there was no more trot in him. His owner would not be convinced that his trottin’ days were over till he had been beaten seven times in succession. Then, and not till then, did the owner of Tacony throw up the sponge.
I still have great confidence in Maud S. and it is my idea that Vanderbilt won’t throw up the sponge till Maud has had another tussle for supremacy with Jay-Eye-See.
[Editor’s notes: During the 19th century, in the northeast of the United States, there was more interest in trotting racing than flat racing. Harry Hill’s columns, like the above, reflect this preference. The races that the column invokes took place in the 1840s. Of special note is the mention of the heavy merchandising of both Lady Suffolk and Tacony as brands, perhaps one of the earliest examples of the marketing of sporting figures.]
