LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS, 91 



get a line on him, as I had never driven him a mile better 

 than 2:20 but once, and that was for Mr. Gillender, at Fleet- 

 wood, where he went in 2:17. The day Goldsmith Maid 

 was twenty-one years old Biidd drove her for Governor Stan- 

 ford a mile in 2:16, a performance that I never expect to see 

 any other animal make under similar conditions, and that I 

 think si^eaks volumes for Mr. Doble' s ability and care as a 

 trainer and driver. To have had a mare under his charge 

 all those years, and to have driven her over all kinds of 

 tracks, travel the country with her in steam cars from one 

 end to the other, and then drive her a mile in 2:16 the day 

 she was twenty-one years old, stamps him in my mind as 

 a trainer without a peer, if he had never done anything else 

 in the line. When Mr. Conklin saw the time on the board he 

 asked me if I thought Rarus could do that, and I said, ' ' Yes, 

 sure." The day following Mr. Conklin and myself drove 

 out the Bay District road, and I gave Rarus a couple of miles 

 in about 2:25. Twenty minutes after, I brought him to the 

 track, and asked Mr. Covey, at that timf the suj)erintendent 

 of Governor Stanford's farm, to go with Mr. Conklin and 

 time him. I scored uj) for the word, and at the iirst attemj)t 

 Rarus went the first quarter in 34 seconds, the second in 34 

 seconds, the third in 34 seconds, and the fourth in 33 

 seconds. I sx)oke to him at the distance stand and from 

 there to the judges' stand he stepiDed off at a pace that I 

 have never seen any other trotter make. He finished strong 

 in 2:15. 



I don't think Mr. Conklin was much surprised, and I 

 myself was not in the least, as I was sure he could do all that 

 and more; but Mr. Covey was about as astonished a man as 

 I saw while I was on the coast. He immediately asked me 

 what I would take for Rarus if he was for sale. I told him 

 that Mr. Conklin was the only man I knew who could 

 answer that question. When he asked Mr. Conklin if the 

 horse was for sale, "Pai?," as we always called him about 

 the stable, said, no; that he did not think that he would 

 care to part with his horse. After considering a moment 



7 



