LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 211 



one or two races where a victory by liim seemed next to 

 impossible. The first race I won with Planter was at Utica 

 against Marion, a horse driven by D. P. Bissell, one of the 

 old school of trainers, a first-class blaclvsmith by trade, wlio 

 now lives and runs a shop at Indianapolis, Ind. Bissell first 

 made his rex)utation away back when I was a boy by driv- 

 ing sucli well-known horses as John A. Logan and Billy 

 Barr, In this race Marion was a long favorite, Planter 

 selling for nothing — his owner backing him and I telling 

 him I was sure he was wasting his money. They fought 

 out a desperate race of six heats and in it Marion made the 

 best record of his life, as also did Planter. Dan Mace was 

 there and bought a few cheap tickets on Planter, more, I 

 think, because I was driving him than because he thought 

 the horse would win, and after each heat came down, took 

 off his coat, and with his usual enthusiasm helped the boys 

 to cool out the horse. Planter was rather a hard horse to 

 drive, having a disposition in the first half of a mile to run 

 a good deal, and the last half he wanted a good deal of 

 carrying. 



The only other race of any note Planter trotted was one 

 over the Springfield, Mass., track the same season. Here he 

 had a large field of horses to contend with, sold for nothing 

 in the pools again, his owner backed him, and the public 

 refused to have their money on him at any price. The race 

 proved a disastrous one for the talent, as Trio, the favorite^ 

 was distanced in the first heat, and a bay gelding called 

 Bay, that belonged to a band of j^eople that I have never 

 seen on the turf before or since, won it. There was a pecul- 

 iarity about this trotter that made an impression on my 

 mind that has never been effaced. On the farm where he 

 was bred was an old gray horse that ran in the field with 

 Bay while he was colt. As Bay grew up to a horse's form, 

 he and the old gray formed a sti'ong attachment for each 

 other, and it was with difficulty tiiat they could be separated. 

 The colt being trotting-bred, his owner concluded to have 

 him trained, but found when he sent him to a trainer's that 



