UNFAIR JUDGING. 77 



under the trotting rules, for he trotted it honestl}^ 

 without a skip or break which she did not, to say 

 nothing of her two or three lengths advantage at the 

 start. 



Smuofo-ler was now a very tired horse, the three fast 

 fighting heats, with the great weight he carried on his 

 feet, leaving him thoroughly leg-weary. We now re- 

 moved the four-ounce toe-weights to partially relieve 

 him, but in the fourth heat he was beaten after a o^ood 

 struggle in 2:17^, and he again contended gamely in 

 the fifth heat which was won in 2:18, but in the sixth 

 heat a standstill break very nearly left him outside 

 the flag in 2:19f. Smuggler did not get first money 

 that day, but it was a race in which he gained honors 

 equal with the winner, and there was at least as much 

 difference of opinion as to the question of superiority 

 after the race as there was before it. 



In consequence of criticisms of my asking for the 

 word in the third heat when not on even terms, 

 Colonel Russell wrote the following letter, which 

 speaks for itself : 



Home Farm, Milton, Mass., ) 

 September 11, 1876. f 

 As most of the papers, whilst saying that Smuggler 

 was faii'ly entitled to the Hartford race, blame his 

 driver, Charles Marvin, for asking for the word when 

 some lengths behind Goldsmith Maid, I deem it only 

 my duty to a man who has served me most faithfully 

 to explain that his reason for acting as he did was the 

 simple fact that the judges allowed, and showed no dispo- 

 sition to prevent, the most unfair scoring on the part of 

 the Maid. Xo one who saw it will deny that she 

 was allowed to act just as seemed best for her own 



