In early Kentucky, disputes were often settled not by duels but by horse races run in a straight course of about a quarter mile on public roads, and quarter horses were specifically bred for these straight-course contests. The first circular track appeared in America in 1780. In the February 16, 1778, Kentucky Gazette, a notice announced the English bred quarter horse Pilgarlick standing at stud in Lexington. Thoroughbreds, also of English stock and bred for the longer distance of a circular track, appeared in Kentucky in 1797 with the horse Blaze. Colonel William Whitley, at his estate Sportsman’s Hill, is credited with building the first circular track in Kentucky. Whitley had settled in Kentucky from Virginia in 1775, and in 1788 he began holding annual fall racing. The races became so popular that the Lincoln County Court ordered a view of the most convenient way for a road from Whitley’s race path to the courthouse. By 1800, horse racing had spurred the building of tracks in Georgetown, Danville, Bardstown, Shelbyville, Versailles, Winchester, and Maysville, Kentucky.