File:The American turf- an historical account of racing in the United States - with biographical sketches of turf celebrities. 1898 (1898) (18163104905).jpg

Title: The American turf: an historical account of racing in the United States : with biographical sketches of turf celebrities. 1898
Identifier: americanturfhist00week (find matches)
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Subjects: Horses; Horse racing
Publisher: New York : The Historical Company
Contributing Library: Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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THE AMERICAN TURF only Mr. Whe;itly now survives. The Hxecutive Com- mittee of tile new association bought suitable land on the southerly side of Union Avenue, and delegated to its secretary authority to construct the race course. Within a year this course was completed, to the entire satisfac- tion of the association, and was ready for use at the opening of the meeting in the summer of 1864. For at least twenty years the Saratoga Course contin- ued on an extraordinary career of almost uninterrupted prosperity. The modest three days' meetings of 1869 and 1864 rapidly grew in proportions, until in 1870, the racing season had expanded so as to include two meet- ings every summer. Not long afterward it developed the strong and widespread inlliience of Saratoga upon racing affairs throughout the country. In the seventies Sai'atoga was patronized by such eminent turfmen as Messrs. August Belmont, D. D. Withers, Leonard Jerome. John F. Purdy, Oden Bowie, Charles W. Bath- gate, John Hunter, W. R. Travers, H. P. McGrath, Pierre Lorillard, John T. Hoffman, Harry Genet, J. G. K. Lawrence, M. A. Littell, O. M. Bassett, H. Harding, William Turnbull, James McGowan and others. At the track were the stables, year after year, of owners of national reputation, such as Major Bacon, Captain T. G. Moore, Colonel D. McDaniel, and Messrs. D. J. Grouse, R. Wyndham Walden, John Harper, David McCoun,
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MORRIS PARK EXTERIOR OF A RACING STABLE Still further, such was the demand of the patronizing public and the enthusiastic rivalry between all the repre- sentative stables of the North and South. Finally a season of seven weeks' sport became one of the features of every summer, and the prosperity that attended this protracted gathering of sportsmen fully demonstrated the high standing to which Saratoga had attained as one of the most prosperous and most influential racing centres that had up to that time been established any- where in the United States. Another thing was soon clearly shown, and that was 461 James Thompson, Woodford Springfield, Ephraim Snedeker, W. R. Babcock, M. H. Sanford, George L. Lorillard, Pierre Lorillard, John O'Donnell, Francis Morris, and many others. In the course of time changes in the ownership and management of the Saratoga Course came about. In the later seventies the course, with all its privileges, was leased to John Morrissey, with Charles Reed and Albert Spencer as his partners. No changes were made in the racing, which still continued under the control and authority of the Saratoga Association. Upon the death

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