MISCELLANY. 165 



many heats a two-year-old trotter should be given 

 before a race, and how fast they should be — as- 

 suming the colt to be a first-class one. 



*'\Mien Branham Baughman, 2:04^4, was racing 

 for me on the Grand Circuit," Cox continued, 

 "things happened one race day so that the fastest 

 warm-up mile he got was 2 130, yet he went right 

 out and raced in 2 104 J/ and came back as game 

 as anything you ever saw. How about that?" 



In almost every other department of their work, 

 trainers vary the treatment to suit the individual, 

 but warming up for a race seems to be done about 

 the same way all around, Cox being the first man 

 I ever heard suggest that possibly the present sys- 

 tem might be vitally wrong. As far as two-year- 

 olds go, it can be said that, when the day came for 

 the first start of Sparkle Watts, a 2:10^ — it was 

 at Kalamazoo — ^Mr. Geers gave the filly a mile in 

 2:17, preceded, of course, by a couple of slower 

 ones. In the actual race that afternoon, the best 

 mile was 2:i95{[. but. when the warming up was 

 done, the idea was to prepare for a possible 2:15 

 mile. 



The only two-year-old trotter to beat 2:10 this 

 season is Cox's filly, Native Spirit, 2:09^, and she 

 took that record in beating Sparkle Watts a race 

 at Columbus, coming from behind in each of the 

 two heats trotted. For that race. Native Spirit 

 was warmed up with a mile in 2 140 and another 

 in 2 :30. three heats not being deemed necessarv. 



