74 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



I shall speak hereafter of Goldsmith Maid's remark- 

 able intelligence in " scoring." But perhaps the most 

 interesting fact in her career is that she made her 

 fastest time, 2.14, at the age of nineteen ; and on her 

 twenty-first birthday Budd Doble drove her a mile 

 in 2.16. Goldsmith Maid continued on the track for 

 nearly fifteen years, conquered all the fastest horses 

 of her time, and trotted in all 332 heats under 2.30. 

 She lasted so long partly because of her good breed- 

 ing, and partly, it may be, because she was never 

 trained or worked until she had become a mature 

 horse. The fashion now is to make the trotter's 

 career begin while he is a colt, but although the prac- 

 tice has not been tested thoroughly, it must be fraught 

 with danger. If it ever should become general, it 

 is certain that many young horses would be over- 

 worked and ruined every year, comparatively few 

 drivers having the discretion and patience that are 

 required for the safe " preparation " of a colt. There 

 have been other horses who, like Goldsmith Maid, 

 being well bred and beginning at a mature age, lasted 

 a long time on the track. Dutchman, who trotted 

 his first race at six years of age, was a sound and 

 fast horse at eighteen. Topgallant, a grandson of the 

 thoroughbred imported horse Messenger, and the first 

 to make a record of 2.40, is a still more extraordinary 

 example. When twenty-four years old he trotted a 

 very hard race of four three-mile heats against all 

 the best horses of his day, winning one heat ; and the 

 week after he engaged in another race of three-mile 

 heats, wiiich he won. Old Topgallant was a great 

 favorite of Hiram Woodruff, who as a boy took care 

 of him. and as a young man trained, rode, and drove 



