PATRON^S DEFEAT. 137 



second heat Manzanita got away a little back, but re- 

 gained the pole before they went a quarter, and com- 

 ing on won without any great exertion in 2:23^ from 

 Eagle Bird. The backers of Eagle Bird and Patron 

 were now in trouble, and Manzanita sold a three-to-one 

 favorite over the field. The next was a warm heat, as 

 a blanket would have covered Manzanita, Patron and 

 Eagle Bird from the start to the three-quarter pole, 

 where they were racing head and head. Half-way up 

 the stretch I had Patron and Eagle Bird beaten, and 

 begun to ease up a little, when Silverone unexpectedly 

 came with a great rush, carried Manzanita to a break, 

 and won by about a length in 2:25f. Silverone, I 

 rather think had the speed of the party that day, but 

 had to go back to the one-eighth to score, which killed 

 her chances. Xow all the wise men of the turf talked 

 of jManzanita, and were dead sure she was "a quitter" 

 and "done for," and acting on the hasty conclusion 

 dumped good money into '* the box " against her. It 

 would have been just as well invested in Lake Michi- 

 gan, for in the last heat Manzanita made the pace so 

 strong from the half that she had things her own way 

 in the f^tretch, and won by two or three lengths in 

 2:241 



The " talent," after losing hard in learning the simple 

 lesson that it is a fool's act to jump at sudden conclu- 

 sions, had a tiresome and disconsolate task in figuring 

 out how it was that a sore three-year-old filly trotted 

 two heats in 2:23^, quit in 2:25f, and then, after being 

 " dead beat," " quitting," " setting down," and all that 

 sort of thing, came back easily in 2:2-1^ in the fourth 

 heat. There is this peculiarity about men whose 



