FIRST HAVE THE SPEED. 225 



can condition him for mile and repeat performances. 

 You may have him keyed up as hard as nails, but if 

 your competitor can go a quarter in thirty-five seconds 

 and you can go in thirty-seven, he will beat you all the 

 way, and do it easy, while you are straining and 

 struo^Hino^, and o-ameness and condition won't save vou 

 if the other horse is half-fit. He will be fresh after 

 your colt is dead tired, and no matter how game your 

 colt is he will have him a beaten horse in short order, 

 simply because he can do with ease what 3^ou cannot 

 do with your utmost effort. At the proper place I will 

 write on the preparation of horses for races, and I 

 here merely want to caution you that a two-year-old 

 colt requires verv little drilling at mile heats. Sunol 

 trotted in 2:18 as a two-year-old, and no other has ever 

 trotted nearlv so fast. Just where we are now — the 

 spring when 3'our colt is two — is a good time to glance 

 back at the chapter where her training is described, 

 and see how many mile-and-repeat workings she had. 

 "When you have developed whatever measure of speed 

 you beheve sufficient to win the colt's engagement, 

 you can fit him for the race as Sunol was fitted, but 

 Tememher you must first have the speed. G amen ess and 

 condition and all that won't prevail over a competitor 

 that can throw dust in your eyes while going within 

 himself. 



At the beginning of work on the regular track, I 

 have thought it well to explain the purpose and 

 effectiveness of the brush system ; for, just as 1 have 

 remarked upon the necessity of knowing why you do 

 things in a certain way, I have felt it my duty not 

 only to tell how we handle colts, but '•' the whv and 

 the wherefore " as well. 



