Goldsmith Maid: "Queen of the Trotters"

Goldsmith Maid was born in 1857 in the shadows of the Kittatiny Mountains of Sussex County. Her owner, John B. Decker of Deckertown, named his new filly "Maid", a good one syllable name for a potential work horse. She was a handsome bay with no white points but never grew taller than 15 1/4 hands, (61 inches high at the withers). She was described as being "wiry" and even "tucked up" towards her hind quarters, but pleasant enough to look at, especially with nostrils flared and the fierce look in her eyes.

Her dam, known as "Old Ab" after her sire Abdallah, was sweet and docile. Decker bred Old Ab to Alexander's Abdallah,(formerly known as Edsall's Hambletonian), who was sired by Rysdyk's Hambletonian, also a grandson of Abdallah. Horsemen refer to this inbreeding as line breeding. John B. Decker was hoping for a farm horse, but this breeding gave him a fire cracker.

According to an account by John Dimon in the November 29, 1877 edition of the "Cultivator and Country Gentleman", Maid was "nervous and fretful" and a "wayward child". Once when farmer Decker tried to hitch her to a harrow, she reared up, tangled herself in the harness, and threw herself in a tantrum. She was lame for quite a while after that.

About once a month, possibly coming into season, she would get loose and gallop for a visit over the neighboring farms and fields. She was skilled at clearing fences, streams, ditches, everything in her path, plowed fields or whatever, finding her way home after six to eight miles of the grand tour only to land back in the same field where she started. This burst of spirit and energy would hold her for a while and then it would be off to the neighbors' corn fields again.

This was 1863, the time of the "great rebellion", and horses were in short supply for the army. Mrs. Decker was so annoyed at the problem mare that she prevailed on her husband to sell Maid to one of these recruiters staying with them overnight. In the dawn, the deal was struck for $260.

Well, the next morning traveling down the road, the poor chap realized he had more than he bargained for. When a neighboring farmer, Mr. Thomkins, stopped him on the road and expressed interest, he happily resold the filly for $360.

Mr. Thomkins tried to drive her but she was too much horse for him and he found her gaits "dangerous". He sold her "in trade" to Alden Goldsmith of Blooming Grove in Orange County, New York for $600 in cash and a second hand buggy.

Her new owner changed her name to Goldsmith Maid and turned her over to his driver, William Bodine, who must have been the 1800's version of a horse whisperer. He saw that the 8 year old mare was unbroken and also had a troubling upper respiratory infection. Bodine figured out that this mare had to set her own pace. She hated being encumbered so they worked her without check reins, martingale, blinders or a whip. This meant she could finally work and breathe unimpeded. Thus a compromise was struck. The mare responded and it was like harnessing lightning.

Goldsmith Maid trotted her first race in August 1865, won some local races, and then set track records in Goshen, New York (a mile in 2 minutes 26 seconds in three heats), and a record in Mystic Park racetrack in boston in 1868 with the time of 2:21 1/2.

It was a shame that her career started so late. She was broken at the age of 8, raced brilliantly for three years, and now Goldsmith realized that as an 11 year old she was running out of time.

In 1868 she was sold again to Budd Doble from Trenton, New Jersey for $20,000. He was the son of Willian H. Doble who kept Trenton's Eagle Hotel and had five sons who were all horsemen and drivers. This was the beginning of the Trenton connection.

Doble raced Goldsmith Maid for another six years, winning races from Buffalo to Sacramento, California. He was the PT Barnum of this horse era, fitting a private custom railroad car for Goldsmith Maid, advertising appearances and making a lot of money. Maid was immensely popular with the American public, appearing in match races with locals' top horses and even making it to Currier and Ives popular prints.

Budd Doble maintained his horse business at the site of the Trenton Fairgrounds. There was a mile track, grandstands, stables and several fields of hay and grain. In early 1870's, he became involved with Henry N. Smith, the financier with a love for horseflesh. Smith had stables in New York and started buying up land in the Trenton area with the idea of setting up a premium horse breeding operation.

In 1873, there was a terrible fire at the stables, now known as the Fashion Stud Farms, and Doble managed to save Goldsmith Maid. Nine other horses, including two road-mares owned by President Ulysses Grant, were killed. A year after this setback Goldsmith Maid was sold for reportedly $35,000 to Henry N. Smith.

For the last years of her career, her glory days, she defended her title with Budd Doble driving. Her record of a mile in two minutes and 14 seconds held for some time. She earned a total of $364,200 in her career and that record would hold for almost a hundred years, until the 1950's.

She died suddenly on September 23, 1885 at the age of 28. She had developed pheumonia in an age before antibiotics, and an autopsy showed she had an enlarged heart. She was buried on the grounds of Fashion Stud Farms and her monument is in Hamilton Township at Kuser Park.

If you go to one of the Hamilton Township Sunday night concerts under the stars at the gazebo in Kuser Park, look over at the tennis courts. Look where the elbow of the driveway meets the Mansion's service road, where those flowers have been so carefully planted. That engraved granite marker is her public's monument to the forever free-spirited and famous Goldsmith Maid.


Trenton rocks.