FIELD AND ATHLETIC SPORTS IN, AMERICA.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1953, 9 November 1874, Page 2

FIELD AND ATHLETIC SPORTS IN, AMERICA.

[NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT OP ARGUS.] j The progress in our country of healthy field and athletic sports sports was never more rapid than this year. .Our racing has been more frequent and better than heretofore; The principal interest has centred in trotting, which is, to the American public, what running is to your own, and for a very similar reason. Nearly as large a proportion of gsntlemen here own and drive their own horses as with you and ride them. Our large cities are sure to have one or more public roads and private tracks especially laid out, not for stated races so much as for casual trials of speed by private howes. In this way an extensive market for trotters is made, and breeders constantly strive to outstrip each other. A trotting horse must be carefully kept, and cannot with safety be speeded much, not even enough to test his real powers, before he is his fourth year, and then he requires at least a year of skilful training to develop his toying powers, luVspeed, and his tempera — the latter being far more important in trotting than In running. But once in the harness and well trained, such ; a horse, if he can "make" a mile in 2.37, will bring without difficulty lOOOdol or 1200dol, and every second that can be knocked off his time adds largely to. his value. There are numerous horses now \ in . private ownership here which have never trotted for money and never will, who have changed hands at from 2000dol to SOOOdol. while our crack horses have brought as high as 48,000d01. I mention these facts as the most convenient way of indicating the amount of interest that is felt in this sport. This year has been, notable not only for some brilliant cony, tests between our great trotters, but also for one contest against: time, which is reported to have resulted in the unprecedented speed of a mile in 2min 16sec. This was attributed to a mare some 16 years old, known as "Goldsmith Maid," and I am bound to say I think ie a- little, doubtful. The same mare, however, is to trot next week on a track at Buffalo,

well-known, and under the supervision of a reputable association, for 2000dol against time. She will, if she does well, be then taken |from the turf and used for breeding; Running races grow every year in favor, and there is a slight flavor of aristocracy about them which gives them a certain ad vantage over the trotting contests.., Still they are attractive solely as spectacles, and as occasions for'betting. Not'ori'e mafi'in a thousand who visits them knows^ any more about the distinctive merits of If horse under the saddle than, he does about those of a trained monkey or an~ edncoted mouse. No , one; rides in our country, or so nearly no one that the statement is no exaggeration in this connection Least of all does any one ride across country, and there is no element of personal interest in the process by^ which 7 our running races are won. But the. actual interest is great, and is getting^ greater all the while. In the, . Southern' States .there ■ are a number of active associations, in which, ;howeyefj ipf r late years there has; .for obvious reasons, tjeehiles3'' <; liberality than before the war: ,: In' 'the • North ; we < ha ye^ three nbtaßle"meei;irigs '; ; two. near Nevv York, ; which^ correspiondi'-I should say, somewhat to; the ; : English Ascot, and "one at r Saratsga s Springs— a ! beautiful : summer ' tfesdrt-S-whiGnl /.latter . meeting corresponds accurately enough tot- £ the. Goodwood... If you. have, improved on the English t cusWm.j' ; and, i'aveja. habit of keeping the .time t made, by^ ytiur'ru'hnfcr^' you may like i to know, that of /pur'wiianers, this year. \ .... At SaratogaV;fpr^he/yp^n^cip^" stakes (the Travers), for thfeerye^ol'dc^lfsr 3 and fillies, one mile , and; threevquar.ters," " Mr : P. 'Lovillard'su brown, colt ; 7 i&ttila, ., carrying 1101 b,* r won! ; in ; :3min[:,B|Bec, r: Eleven years sihee'i when these stakes-/ were established, the time was 3min 18sec. It was got down to 3min v ;W3ec ml 1872., 0/£,,thi3 ;ll years, sevetf ftacl been s|red by Lexington, a splendid blind stallion Of the remainder, two have^been^slred^ by an •importeji; English^, horse, , named ! ;Australiah, though the^inner thw'yealf •had for : dam.ar daughter of Lexington, itshows a most remarkable strain^bFblood, certainly,, ja.nd.,l- may r add th^t the Lexington [family Has not held its'o'wirwitho'ut determined competition, r . r ,- s Collegiate' athletic sports also received lan immense impetus this year, from a series of con tests inaugurated at Saratoga by an association .of. public-spirited £^ zeris of that place. This assbciatioh^tias I control of a fihe'lake^ nestling[in thejhiUs! about four miles from ;.the;- Springs, and . affording i. a, splendid course fpr^ rowing, ; and they. 'have succeeded in making it. 'ihe head-quarters 1 of ; the, collegiate ,- racagj in connectionr; iwith. : which , /.they have also provid'ed^forO'regular in running, and- in our "national game" base-ball, limited them, however, to re- : presentatiyes of ' our colleges. This year eleven" crews took part in the-inter-collegiate race, which was for six oars, over a three-mile course, straight away. The principal competitors were from our two leading universities, Yale and: Harvard, the one regarded as representing as nearly as possible the Oxford stroke, the other still adhering to a stroke of its own, not very different from that used in the famous face on ;the Thames between Oxford and Harvard. I am sorry to, say . that there was this year a f great idealfof bad blood between .these two crews and their friends. ;The' Tale : men especially showed it by Ruffianly conduct on the ground, while the Hafvards' undoubtedly felt it, but bore, themselves much, more quietly^ A foul threw the^Yaie"clßßw out in the first 'part of :the:racep^and made them intensely angry. The race then lay bet ween '¥wb hew "ere ws^on'e f ro&v Columbia College; ; in this city,; one, from the Wesleyan University, a Methodist and Theological School in Massachusetts, and and the ; Harvards. The Columbia. men won by a very small leeway; the^Wesleyans came next, and the : Harvards^third. The. winners.use an almostexact counterpart of the Cambridge stroke, and were, I believe, trained by a Cambridge gradoate. Their time was 16m 42s and thai of\tibe Wes!eyans;l6m 503.' , The Freshman race I may.remark, was won in ißth 12|s/distance three'; miles, 5 by another iCrew ; .L6f theologians from r the 'Presbyterian school iof Princeton, New Jersey ; so you see that muscular Christianity-is: not. without its devotees in our land.