222 LIFE WITH THE TKOTTERS. 



like this should enhaiiceitsalready good reputation by trot- 

 ting the fastest mile that the world has ever seen. 



The sensational trotter of 1888 was the black gelding 

 Guy. My experience with Gviy was very limited, as I 

 started him in but one race. When I took charge of ]\Ir. 

 W. J. Gordon's stable and horses Guy was rather an uncer- 

 tain quantity, he having already sliown all the speed that 

 has since made him famous to the public. I will cite just 

 one instance of what he did for me to prove that this horse 

 was a wonderful trotter from breeding and inheritance. I 

 drove him a mile to an ordinary road cart in 2:17^ over the 

 Cleveland track, going eighteen feet out from the pole. In 

 this performance he wore nothing except the harness, no 

 shoes or tips of any kind, no boots or weights. This per- 

 formance, while it may not seem much to a casual observer, 

 now that Gun' has gone in 2:12, impressed me more than his 

 performance of 2:12 afterward. To see a horse go out with- 

 out mechanical appliances of any kind, as you w^ould take 

 him out of the pasture, and hook him to a vehicle which, 

 with the driver, weighed over 300 i)ounds, and with the 

 poles laid down so that he could not go within eighteen feet 

 of the inside rail, and in those conditions trot a mile in 2:17^, 

 the first half in 1:10 and the last half in 1:07^, and do it in 

 a manner which led a man who was a very close observer, 

 and saw the j^erformance, to remark tiiat it was not the 

 2:17|^ that he was wondering at, but what he could liave 

 done had I turned him loose from the start to finish, is what 

 stamps the pei'formance as a very notable one. 



Having shown by this what a wonderful trotter Guy is, 

 brings to my mind a conversation that I had had years before 

 with that estimable gentleman and excellent Judge of horses, 

 Col. Richard West, of Georgetown, Ky., concerning Ken- 

 tucky Prince, the sii-e of Gny. Long before Guy or any of 

 the Kentucky Prince family had attracted the attention of 

 the trotting Avoild by their extraordinary flights of speed 

 Colonel West predicted for Kentucky Prince the great repu- 

 tation that he has since achieved. Upon my asking him one 



