rREPARING FOR TWO-YEAR-OLD FUTURITIES. 73 



oi)]y way this could be done was to make these great efforts every 

 two or three days, but not too often. I also knew by experience 

 tliat it was necessary for me to consume plenty of muscle-making 

 rood. In fact, I had learned how to condition myself for this kind of 

 work and husv to take care of myself after a great effort. 



"After considerable thought I decided to work Axtell as I 

 developed myself and see what the result would be. His road-work 

 was continued, with an occasional brush where the footing was good, 

 and every time I started him up he could go faster than he ever had 

 before. About the 20th of May he was hitched to the sulky for the 

 first time and taken to the track. Up to this time I had no oppor- 

 tunity of knowing how fast he could go, but the first time he was 

 moved to harness I found he could go an eighth in less than 0:20. 

 That was not very fast, still it showed a big improvement over the 

 sfeed he had shown in the fall. 



"Being pleased with the colt. I was determined to do the best I 

 could with him. He only saw the track about two days in a week, 

 the other days (he was never harnessed on Sunday) being set aside 

 for jogging on the road for eight or ten miles in an hour. He was 

 driven without a check and always in an open bridle. The days he 

 was given track-work I jogged him about three miles the wrong way 

 of the track, then turned and went the right way about two miles, 

 and started him up from two to four times in that distance. I 

 would drive him about thirty or forty rods at speed, then jog him a 

 short distance before asking him for another burst of speed. After 

 I thought him in condition I drove him in these brushes about as 

 fast as he could go. 



"During all this time he was fed large quantities of grain and 

 all the hay and grass he would eat. About the middle of July he 

 was asked to go his first half-mile and did it handily in 1 :15. Ten 

 days from that time he covered the same distance in 1:12. About 

 August 1st he was driven a easy mile in 2:3Si'o, the first one he had 

 ever gone. In this mile he was brushed four or five times, and the 

 rest of the time only moved along at about a 3:00 gait. This mile 

 was about as fast as he was driven in his work in his two-year-old 

 form, and on August 9th he started at Keokuk. Iowa, in his first 

 race. All of the other starters were three-year-olds. In the third 

 heat, over a poor half-mile track, he distanced the field in 2:31%, 

 and the next morning Axtell's name appeared in the daily papers for 

 the first time. Since that time none has appeared as often." 



