118 THE TROTTING-IIORSE OF AMERICA. 



carried on according to your best judgment, from what you 

 observed in the last two miles of the repeat, how he finished 

 it and behaved afterwards. Ten days before his race he 

 will be ready for his final trial, five miles out. From his 

 performance of that, and its effect on him, the trainer ought 

 to be able to form a definite judgment as to his condition : 

 and here condition is as absolute a necessity as stoutness. 

 The most skilful and experienced man may be deceived as 

 to the stoutness of a horse in a ten-mile race, when he has 

 not proved it by going one ; but the trainer ought not to be 

 mistaken in his condition. 



Upon the judgment to be formed now, the tactics to be 

 adopted in the race will mainly depend. If the horse is 

 known to be a stout one, and his condition is as good as can 

 be, the policy will be to go along at a good rate, not caring 

 if the other goes faster at first", but to keep up at that rate, 

 or thereabouts, and force the other to keep at it too, when 

 he would rather slacken up a little. By this means any 

 extra speed your opponent may have had at the start will 

 have disappeared long before the finish. You will have got 

 him down to your speed, and have your extra stoutness to 

 win with. It is to be remembered that the speed of a 

 speedy horse diminishes very rapidly when he begins to 

 tire ; and that keeping him going at a steady rate for a 

 great distance, even though it is much slower than his best 

 rate, tries his stoutness. If there is a soft place in him, 

 this plan is much more likely to find it out than any other. 

 If he could go part of the way fast, and another part a 

 moderate jog only, he would be apt to recuperate, and 

 recover speed for the finish; but when the rating-horse 

 follows steadily, mile after mile, as sure to come to time as 

 a clock, the other is not able to make his own pace, except 

 it be a moderately fast pace all the way, and this is sure to 

 cut down his speed. Speed can only be made an available 

 substitute for bottom in races of moderate length. Ten 

 miles is too far for it. 



