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The first documented race was in the year 1651 between 2 noblemen

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First race in North America was in the year 1664 in what is now New York

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A horse named Janus was imported to Virginia in 1756 and is credited as the foundation of the American Quarter Horse

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It's always a good time to remember the first great progenitor of American Quarter Horses, the leading sire of what in the 18th century were known as Celebrated American Quarter of a Mile Running Horses. Foaled in England in 1746 and imported to the Colonies a decade later, he was called Janus - Jane-us, for the Roman god of mythology, doors and beginnings, which is why the month of January is named for that diety.

By Old Janus, a son of the Godolphin Barb, Janus competed successfully in the four-mile heat races so popular in his home country, but did more to set the sprinting phenotype than any other horse in this country. The most famous and sought-after sire of speed in Colonial America, Janus was not listed in the English stud book but occupied a position of high honor in the first stud book on this side of the pond, Patrick Nesbitt Edgar's American Race-Turf Register, Sportsman's Herald and General Stud Book of 1833, in which the admiring compiler referred to him as a Quarter Horse.

According to Alexander Mackay-Smith in "The Colonial Quarter Race Horse," when Janus stood the seasons 1772-74, he was advertised as "very fat and as active as a Lamb" at ages 26-29, and covered more than 200 mares. However, unlike today's stud books that detail every horse in the registry, the early books included only those of recognizably superior class - the kind that Janus threw better and more often than any other stallion. Edgar listed 86 sons, most of which later wound up (without the Quarter Horse notation) in The Jockey Club's book. Other writers have identified at least 14 others, and the stallion appears in direct ascendancy of nine of the 11 original families of American Quarter Horses.

No portraits are known to exist, but a number of contemporary and near-contemporary horsemen described him, including George W. Jeffreys in 1826: "Janus, from his shoulders back, was considered the most perfect-formed horse ever seen in Virginia, by the most skillful connoisseurs. He was remarkable for roundness of contour, strength of articulation, and indicating great powers and stamina in his whole conformation."

Another description comes from Allen Jones Davie, who owned Sir Archy, another foundation sire of Quarter Horses: "Janus was a small horse, of great beauty, uniting uncommon muscular development to limbs delicate and handsome. His legs and feet were fine as those of a deer. He was a chestnut, speckled on the rump as he grew old: a small blaze in the face and hind foot white.

And Edgar himself: Janus was "a chestnut horse, 'sui generis,' of low stature, about 14 hands 3/4ths of an inch high. ... The stock of Old Janus, in Virginia and the southern states, has been distinctly marked for the last 50 years as if he had been of a different species. For power, swiftness and durability, they have been equaled by no other breed of horses.

"Janus had great bone and muscle, round, very compact, large quarters, and very swift; all of which desirable qualities he imparted so perfectly to his progeny, that many of them remain in the stock at this remote period, and great speed and muscular form are still found in many horses whose pedigrees reach him, if accurately traced through different branches; or when, as it is sometimes called, there is a 'double Janus' cross. Nearly all his descendants were 'swift Quarter nags'; they never could run far.

"He was the sire of an immense number of short-distance , broodmares and stallions. Indeed, a remote cross of him in the most superior racehorses of the present day is generally sought after. ... A remote cross of Janus is indispensably necessary, at this day, in a distance racehorse; indeed, there is no other, at this time, which can be said to be more desirable - as to use the slang of the jockey, ' always will help out bottom.' "

After standing for years in Virginia and the Carolinas, Janus at 34 was purchased by a Virginia senator who agreed to give "150 lbs. Virginia currency" upon delivery in the winter of 1779-80. The stallion never made it to his new home, dying on the way in North Carolina in '80.

Janus was gone. The mythology was only beginning.

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colonial america and racing influence resources

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It's always a good time to remember the first great progenitor of American Quarter Horses, the leading sire of what in the 18th century were known as Celebrated American Quarter of a Mile Running Horses.

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The first studbook for thoroughbreds was made in 1791 and included 387 mares that traced to the foundation horses

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In 1806 the first recorded distance race was held. Horses would race distances from 10-40 miles

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The American Quarter Horse became a breed registry in the year 1940

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Horse Racing is one of the most popular things to bet on in present days world. Horse race gambling brings in about 36 billion dollars every year