THE TROTTING-HORSE OF AMERICA. 377 



Eoff consented to trot with Dexter ; for, though some con- 

 tinued to think that the big brown horse could beat the 

 little one, his trainer and driver was quite certain that he 

 could not. The race was on the Suffolk-park Course. Two 

 to one was laid upon Dexter, whose race of the Monday 

 previous of five heats had done him a great deal of good. 

 I concluded that it had done so before he left my place to 

 go on to Philadelphia ; and the event proved that it was so. 

 In the first heat, Dexter took the lead, and kept it. He 

 won in 2m. 26 |s. In the second, the little horse broke in 

 the first quarter, and the big one got a lead of four or five 

 lengths ; but then Dexter out-trotted him all the way, and 

 won by three lengths in 2m. 25s. In the third heat, Dexter 

 took the lead, went to the half-mile in 1m. 10s., four or five 

 lengths ahead, and continued to drop the California horse as 

 he went on. On the home-stretch, Dexter made a break, but 

 won the heat by six lengths in 2m. 23|s. That made the 

 fastest heat that had been won in harness, except those of 

 Flora Temple. I had looked for it that season, but not 

 quite so soon after the five heats on the Fashion, in which 

 the fifth was 2m. 24. It had been my conviction for a 

 long period, as my trusted friends know, that Dexter would 

 reform the record from top to bottom, and beat Flora Temple's 

 time in harness and to wagon, just as he had beat the best 

 saddle-time. It was, however, a question with me how Eoff 

 could have been within six lengths at the finish of this heat 

 in 2m. 23^-s., unless the course was uncommonly fast, or some- 

 thing else. But perhaps the six lengths were ten or twelve. 

 Afterwards, when these horses travelled the country together, 

 and Dexter made better and better time, it used to be a 

 matter of remark among a few of us, that Eoff was never 

 distanced; but at last I heard an explanation hazarded, 

 which I believe to have been the truth. The parties being 

 all in together, none of them could afford to have a part of 

 the concern disgraced ; and the judges were probably given 

 to understand, that, in order to see Dexter do his best, they 



