156 LIFE V\ ITir THE TROTTEES. 



it by my watcli, in 2:06 J, which was also the official time, 

 beating the best racing record 3| seconds and setting a 

 mark that, to this day, looks a good way off to any jDacer or 

 trotter. 



It so happened that although the day was a pleasant 

 one the audience was not large, and this was not the first 

 time that a great harness performance has been made with 

 a small crowd in attendance, as a few years previous to this 

 when Maud S. beat all the trotting records by going a mile 

 in 2:10f over the same track, there was hardly a corporal's 

 guard on the ground, no one expecting to see a fast mile. 

 But those who did see Johnston make this performance 

 were mostly j)i"^t'tical horsemen and when the judges 

 announced the time, the shout that went up made uj) in 

 enthusiasm Avhat it lacked in A^olume. The trial did not 

 seem to distress the horse in the least and I am positive 

 that he could have gone some faster, and his performance 

 the following week proves to me conclusively that this is the 

 case. He went directly from Chicago to Lexington, Ky., 

 and, being detained in a smash-up on the train, I never had 

 a chance to put the harness on him until he came out to pace 

 for the money. He was to pace for a purse to beat the best 

 time ever made over the Lexington track, and won by going 

 in 2:08, jmcing the last half up the hill in 1:02— a perform- 

 ance that it would take a i^retty fair runner hitched to a 

 sulky to accomplish. This was the last time I ever drove 

 Johnston, as my connection with the Kittson stable was then 

 severed. 



I have heard a great many people say that J ohnstr m is a 

 soft horse. In condition, I think him as game a horse as I 

 ever saw, and by long odds the fastest one. Out of condi- 

 tion, he is about as helpless a horse as can be imagined; and 

 that is not the case with Johnston alone. Some of the 

 games t horses that I ever saw when in condition, were the 

 most helpless when out of form. Rarus, a horse whose 

 stamina and courage no one ever doubted, was the same. 

 Wedgewood, who proved liimself to be possessed of as much 



