406 GOVERNOR SPRAGUE. 



During the next year, as a four-year-old, he was kept in train, but, as 

 is alleged, never driven at speed a full mile except on one occasion, 

 when he showed 2:28; also made two half-mile trials, each in 1:12, and 

 all on a half-mile track. 



In the last week in July, of that year, he was taken to Cleveland, 

 Buffalo and Utica, apparently for the purpose of exhibiting his pre- 

 cocity and extraordinary ability as a young trotter. He was jogged 

 two miles at Cleveland, by the side of another horse, and was then 

 driven for speed the third mile without stopping ; and he made it in 

 2:2(jt, in the easiest apparent manner, coming out as he does from all 

 his efforts, as though it was merely an exercising gait. 



At Buffalo, about one week later, he was jogged around the track, 

 and then sent at speed a full mile in 2:21^, making the last half a half- 

 second faster than the first one, and finishing the third quarter in 34 

 seconds — a 2:16 gait for a four-year-old. Again, shortly thereafter, 

 at the Utica meeting, he made another public trial, in which he marked 

 2:21|^. He was afterward taken home and withdrawn from training 

 until the following spring, when it was resumed. 



He made his first appearance in a race at Dexter Park, July 

 20th, 1875, when he appeared against seven competitors. From his 

 demeanor then no one would have thought he was anything but a 

 veteran of many campaigns. The presence of other horses or that of 

 the crowd had no more visible effect on him than would their absence. 

 He carried himself in splendid stjde; apparently going more for the 

 purpose of exhibiting the nonchalance of himself and driver than for 

 that of making fast time or winning a race. In fact, his motion was 

 so easy — so natural, and requiring so little effort or control from his 

 driver — that no one would have realized the speed at which he went 

 but for the efforts of his competitors, and the still more authoritative 

 decision of the watch. He passed through the crowd and away from 

 them at an easy but rajoid rate, and was at the half-mile in 1 :08, and 

 so far ahead of all others that they were certain to have been dis- 

 tanced if he had not been arrested in his flight of speed. His driver 

 then gave him a sudden but severe pull, forced him to a break, and 

 held him in, coming the last half at such a jog as to let the worsted fol- 

 lowers cross the distance line while he was brought almost to a walk. 



This was the first time I ever saw him, and I then thought, and still 

 think, that he could have made 2:17 or 2:18 without a break. He 

 really seemed to make no effort at all. On the next day after this, his 

 first race, he was sold by his owner to Hon. J. I. Case, of Racine, Wis., 



