LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 77 



Cleveland and at Rochester making a record of 2:15^, 

 which was then by far the best for a stallion. The Maid 

 did not start in the Rochester race, on account of reasons 

 personal to Mr. Doble, and as Fullerton and Lucille Gold- 

 dust were out of the contest at various other points, it so 

 hapi^ened that the only horse thac took part in all of the 

 seven free-for-all races through the circuit that year was 

 Bodiue. This horse was a big bay gelding by Volunteer, 

 that had been i)urchased a coujDle of years before by Mr. 

 H. C. Goodrich, of Chicago, and that was driven by Peter 

 Johnston. Bodine did not win a heat in any of the races, 

 being out-classed in si)eed by Smuggler and the Maid, but 

 he had always given the others a good race and, under John- 

 ston' s careful management, had shown himself a dangerous 

 horse in any comx)any. The Western people were wild 

 about Bodine, and with some reason, since he was the best 

 one in that j)art of the country. At Hartford, Mr Good- 

 rich had a talk with Mr. Allie Bonner, son of Mr. Robert 

 Bonner, and in the course of the conversation the perform- 

 ance of Dexter, who had some years previously drawn Mr. 

 Robert Bonner a mile to wagon in 2:21^, a joerformance 

 that to this day has never been equaled under the same con- 

 ditions, came up. Mr. Goodrich wanted to sell Bodine, and 

 asked Mr. Allie Bonner if the offer that his father had made 

 some years previous, to x)ay a good price for a horse that 

 would do what Dexter did, was still open. Mr. Bonner, 

 while not saying that the offer still held, reiDlied that his 

 father would be willing to buy any good horse that could 

 do that, xlnd so Mr. Goodrich shipped his horse to Chicago, 

 he having no further engagements in the East, with the 

 idea of showing what he could do to wagon. The seven hard 

 races that Bodine had trotted against the Maid and Smug- 

 gler had taken a great deal out of him, as it always does 

 with a horse that is fighting against superior odds, he l)eing 

 necessarily strung out in every heat he goes. So when 

 the son of Volunteer came back to Chicago, he was pretty 

 thin in flesh, and not too exuberant in sxurits. The weight 



