92 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



horse is the driver; and here we touch upon the 

 great difference between running and trotting races. 

 A running race may be described, with some exag- 

 geration, as a brief but spirited flight of colts ridden 

 by boys, whereas a trotting race is a long-drawn 

 contest between seasoned horses and mature men, 

 who are commonly the trainers as well as the drivers 

 of their steeds. Not all running horses, to be sure, 

 are colts, nor all their riders boys, but the limit of 

 age in the horse and of weight in the man is quickly 

 reached. In trotting races the jockeys are always 

 men; the standard weight is 150 pounds, and if the 

 driver falls below that he must carry lead enough on 

 his sulky to make up the deficiency. In running 

 races, steeple-chases excepted, the weight (including 

 that of the rider) varies, roughly speaking, from 75 

 to 130 pounds, and a Fred Archer who tips the scales 

 at anything over j20 must retire to private life. 

 Then, again, running races, nowadays at least, al- 

 most invariably consist of a single dash, whereas 

 trotting races are in heats, the best three in five: 

 and this affords an opportunity for stratagem and 

 patience on the part of the driver; for courage, en- 

 durance, and even for recuperation on the part of 

 the horse. There is, therefore, in the trotting race, 

 an element of subtlety which gives it a peculiar fas- 

 cination. The typical driver who has been evolved 

 from these conditions is a spare but sinewy man, 

 with a quiet manner and a firm mouth, — as distinctly 

 American a person as any that can be found. His 

 chief qualities, so far as the horse is concerned, are 

 sympathy and resolution. "Confidence between the 

 trotting horse and his driver," said the great master 



