370 THE TROTTING-HORSE OF AMERICA. 



match was trotted on the Fashion Course. The number of 

 people present was immense, and it was a great pity that 

 such a concourse should have gathered together to he sorely 

 disappointed. 



Dexter, I knew, was not half himself. He* was sore and 

 lame, and his lameness had kept him in a state of nervous 

 irritability. This put Mr. Eoff in a very tight place. He 

 must beat Dexter ; and he had a strong suspicion that he 

 could not do it, even lame as he was, or the people might 

 discover that the California stallion was not the horse they 

 believed him to be. A man of less courage and artfulness 

 than Eoff would have been in a regular dilemma ; but he 

 hit upon an expedient which enabled him to keep up the 

 humbug of his horse's ability to beat Dexter. He managed 

 in such a way that people thought he threw the race. This 

 maintained the character of the horse; and as for Eoff's 

 own character, it was in keeping with that. 



But the truth is, that he made his horse do all he could ; 

 and in the third heat he was clucking to him all along the 

 back-stretch. Dexter won it in three heats : time, 2m. 29|s., 

 2m. 28|s., 2m. 27s. The day before, George Wilkes 

 had defeated Lady Thorn to wagons at the Union Course in 

 2m. 27s., 2m. 25s., 2m. 25|s ; but, for all that, Eoff was 

 anxious to match the California stallion against him. It 

 was a part of his system. If the match was not accepted, 

 it added to the notoriety of his horse. If it was, his share 

 of the gate-money would greatly exceed what he lost ; and 

 he would either make the people believe that he threw it, or 

 invent some plausible reason why he was beaten. Besides, 

 as he knew that he was quite sure to be beaten by such 

 horses as Dexter and George Wilkes, he had almost a cer- 

 tainty in bets that he might procure to be laid upon them 

 and against George M. Patchen, jun. The mainstay of the 

 whole thing was the keeping up of the fabulous reputation 

 of that horse. 



