154 THE TROTTING-IIORSE OF AMERICA. 



The third mile we kept the same relative positions ; 

 Dutchman being under a good pull all the way, and able to 

 have left the running-mare had he been called upon so to 

 do. The rate was now very even ; and it was maintained 

 until we were within about two hundred yards of the stand, 

 when I was notified to check up, and come home at a more 

 moderate gait. I therefore crossed the score at a jog-trot, 

 and Dutchman was at a walk within fifteen yards of it. 

 The last mile was 2.30, the whole being 7.32|. Great as 

 this performance was thought at the time, long as it has 

 since stood unequalled, and great and deserved as has been, 

 and is, the fame of those who have endeavored to surpass 

 it, I declare that it was not by any means all that Dutch- 

 man could have done that day. I am positive, that, if he 

 had been called upon to do so, he could have trotted the 

 three miles in 7.27, or letter. This is no light opinion of 

 mine, taken up years afterwards on inadequate grounds, and 

 when those who might be opposed to it had gone from 

 among us : it was the judgment of those who saw him in 

 the feat, observed him all through, and noticed how he fin- 

 ished. He as much surpassed any thing that the public had 

 expected of him as could well be conceived ; and yet the 

 three-mile heat in harness in which he distanced Awful was 

 warrant to look out for something great. It has always 

 been my conviction, and will remain so to my dying day, 

 that Dutchman could have done the last mile handily in 

 two minutes and twenty-six seconds ; and I even hold to the 

 opinion that he could have done it in 2.25. The people 

 who witnessed the race thought so too. 



As for the second mile, which he made in 2.28, it was 

 one of the easiest I ever rode in my life. In the great 

 burst of speed he made when Harrison called to me to go 

 along, and Dutchman went away from the running-mare, 

 the horse was strong, collected, and his long, quick stroke 

 very even. At all other times in the race he seemed 

 to be going well within himself; and, in setting down his 



