LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 411 



quently on my return to New York I met Mr. Goldsmith 

 and arranged to take the mare, the first race in which I 

 drove her being at Providence, R. I., in the latter part of 

 October. The other starters in this event were May Queen, 

 Confidence, Colonel Maynard, Crazy Jane, Old Put and 

 Bruno. Goldsmith Maid won the first heat in 2:31J, the 

 second in 2:28|, and the fourth in 2:31, May Queen beating 

 her the third heat in 2:31. Now, although this was my first 

 effort with Goldsmith Maid and she won for me, I did not 

 feel particularly proud of the result, as she was unsteady, 

 far from good-gaited, and more than all, by her getting a 

 record of 2:29|^ I had barred her out of the big purse at Buf- 

 falo for 2:30 horses that was already announced for the fol- 

 lowing season, and all these things put together made me 

 rather disgruntled over the matter, but I had not at all lost 

 faith in the ability of the mare after she had been properly 

 trained. 



That was her last race in 1867, and while I was having 

 her looked after the following winter I gave the subject of 

 her training considerable thought, as I felt that to make a 

 success of her as a race-mare would require a good deal of 

 study. It may seem strange to many people who afterward 

 saw Goldsmith Maid when she could trot five or six heats in 

 one afternoon better than 2:20 and could go a mile almost 

 any day from 2:16 to 2:14, that there could have been a time 

 in her life when she was not a good-gaited trotter. Of course 

 I know that she was, even after she became a very fast mare, 

 what we call a handy one— that is, could recover quickly 

 from a break, but at the time I am now writing of she was 

 absolutely rough and broken gaited and would only occa- 

 sionally strike a square, pure trot, but when she would do 

 this she went faster than at any other time. I knew that at 

 no gait except a square trot would she ever make much 

 speed or attain prominence on the turf and so resolved that 

 when spring came I would keep her on a square trot, no 

 matter if she could not go better than a four-minute gait. 

 With this plan in mind I began jogging the Maid in 



27 



