60 LIFE VriTII THE TKOTTERS. 



saAv Rams go at a rate of speed to make ine tliink lie might 

 be able to trot in 2:20. As he rounded into the stretch, he 

 was in third i^osition, and, from there to tlie stand, the race 

 was as exciting as one conkl wish for. Earns closed inch 

 by inch ; he seemed to grow longer and bigger, and ]\folly 

 Morris shorter and smaller. It looked an uneven battle — 

 the pony, scarcely fourteen hands high, trotting and strug- 

 alino- against a horse that stood over sixteen hands — and 

 when he overtook her at the distance-stand, and beat her to 

 the wire by an eyelash only, in 2:24|-, there was great cheer- 

 ing, and I think that the sympathy of a great many in the 

 audience was with Molly Morris on account of her size and 

 her honest attempt to win. Rarns won the next heat, but 

 not until he had had another determined battle, and went a 

 second faster than in the fourth mile. In the deciding heat 

 they had all had enough of it, and Rarus won in 2:20^. In 

 this race he had gone from 2:28 to 2:23|, and Doty>told me, 

 that night, at the hotel, that he considered him, by long- 

 odds, the faste.st and best horse that he had ever driven. 

 That rather sur^^rised me, as I had seen Doty have some 

 very good ones, and I felt that he had Rarus a little over- 

 rated on account of his victory. .Vt Buffalo he met about 

 the same lot of horses the following week, but Molly Morris 

 turned the tables on him, and beat him in straight heats, in 

 2:22, 2:24|, and 2:24|, Carrie getting second position, and 

 Rarus third. Doty told me that night that he thought 

 the tfack being hard hurt Rarus, as he did not seem dis- 

 p)Osed to extend himself, and at no part of the race, except- 

 ing the finish of the last heat, did he show anything like 

 his Cleveland speed. From what 1 knew of Rarus after- 

 ward, 1 think that Mr. Doty gave the right solution of his 

 defeat. While the first heat of this lace might have been 

 faster than he could have gone, he had shown his ability 

 to beat 2:24, which was the time of the last heat. 



The following week, ;it Rochester, they had another royal 

 battle. Some of the heats of this race were trotted in the 

 mud, which accounts for the great variation in time. Rarus 



B^. 



