372 LIFE Vv'ITK THE TROTTERS. 



give him a record of about 2:20, is a performance I think 

 any trainer might be i^roud of. Hill, in breeding is a de- 

 scendant of the American Star family and one of the hand- 

 somest-gaited and speediest horses I ever saw. I think he 

 could trot a hundred yards at a 2:10 gait. In disi)osition, 

 etc., he was rather inclined to be nervous, a delicate feeder, 

 and for those causes more than for his having been a natural 

 coward, I lay the fact of his not having been a first-class race- 

 horse, as he certainly had speed and gait enough to make 

 him one. He obtained in my hands a record of 2:18|, forced 

 a horse to trot a mile in 2:17^ to beat him, and the other 

 horse had to have the judges on his side in order to win at 

 that. Hill is a horse that I think could, in California, 

 certainly have gone a mile in 2:14. 



One of the best evidences that ever I saw that waiting 

 and taking jjlenty of time to condition a horse is the surest 

 way to get money with him was in the mare Little Gypsy. 

 I had seen her passed around from one trainer to another 

 and handled and worked in rather a slipshod fashion, She 

 finally came into the stable of Mr. AYilliam H. Crawford, 

 who had never, on account of his poor health, considered 

 himself a star driver, but who as a trainer and financier in 

 the business, had made himself a reputation equal to that of 

 Jay Gould in railroad circles. The manner in which Craw- 

 ford trained Gyj^sy must have been a surprise to her, as I 

 noticed he had her well harnessed, well booted, had a good 

 boy to care for her, and in training her gave her his entire 

 personal attention. Through the Michigan circuit in the 

 spring she did not cut much of a figure, but in a race at 

 Dexter Park, the commencement of tlie circuit in which I 

 drove Planter, I found that Mr. Crawford had a pretty fair 

 mare. In talking the matter over with him after the race, 

 he acknowledged to me that such was the case, and further 

 said that when he got her to what he considered a feather 

 edge and was prepared to back her he would like very much 

 to have me take his place behind her, as he lacked confi- 

 dence in himself in that kind of an engagement. The follow- 



