Goldsmith Maid trotted her first race in August 1865 and won several local races. She set track records in Goshen, New Jersey (with a best time of running a mile in 2 minutes, 26 seconds in three heats) in 1865 and Mystic Park racetrack in Boston in 1868 at a time of 2:21½. Goldsmith sold her to Budd Doble, a popular harness racer and trainer, in 1868 for $20,000. Maid continued to race for another six years for Doble, notably winning races in Buffalo, Sacramento and East Saginaw, Michigan against male contenders half her age. From 1869 to 1874, Goldsmith Maid became immensely popular with the American public, attracting thousands of spectators to special match races that pitted her against the nation's top harness racers. Doble earned so much from these matches, and the horse had become so popular that 'The Maid' traveled to these engagements in her own private railroad car. In 1874, Doble set a harness racing world record (one mile in 2:14) in Boston with Maid, who was by then 17 years old.
GOLDSMITH MAID.
In Memoriam.
" She has gone to her grave, but we ne'er can forget her.
The marvelous Maid with a mark of fourteen ;
In the ranks of the flyers we'll ne'er find a better.
For a gamer or faster there never was seen.
"As we think of the track and read its full story,
Her name and her fame shall have the first place ;
Her trots and her triumphs are hers, and its glory ;
She was Queen of the Turf and Queen of her race.
" Some may smile and say that others have beaten
The records she made in the fights that are past ;
But her's was no holiday battle, I reckon ;
They were genuine contests from first to the last.
" Yes, we'll say in remembrance, there ne'er was a better,
A faster or gamer there never was seen ;
She has left us forever, but we ne'er can forget her,
The marvelous Maid with a mark of fourteen."
From The Horseman,
Taken from book American Horses and Horse Breeding by John Dimon (Sketching of The Maid is also from book)