278 HOESE PORTBAITURE. 



excitement, and said, "I told you so ; he is the only real 

 trotter in the world !" 



On entering the home stretch, I could see, from the mo- 

 tions oi e the favorite, that the rider was urging him to his 

 best pace. He had not come far beyond the three-quarter 

 pole, however, when he broke recovered broke again, 

 struck a lumbering, tired gallop, and the thing was out. 

 The other horse made up the long gap, caught him as he 

 commenced trotting again they stayed together for a few 

 strides, when the gallant black rattled away from him, 

 coming home faster than he had trotted any portion of 

 the road before, his head oscillating from side to side, and 

 his ears gayly playing backwards and forwards, as he came 

 under the wire, many lengths in advance of his tired com- 

 petitor. There was no smile on the lips of the rider of 

 the victor. The check might be flushed a very little, but 

 the sparkle of the eye told what he concealed in every 

 other feature, the exultation at conquering the hitherto 

 invincible hero of the trotting-turf. 



It was apparent to every one that something was wrong 

 with the quondam favorite. The time of the heat was 

 faster than the other, yet not so fast as he ought to trot 

 nearly every day in the week. The rider ascribed it to 

 the cinders cutting the tender part of the body, as they 

 were thrown against it by the rapidly moving fore feet. 

 That could not be the cause, as the same thing must have 

 happened in the former race. As soon as he got permis- 

 sion to dismount, the rider took the horse a short distance 

 up the stretch, a light blanket was thrown on him, his 

 body was rubbed, and a man at each leg briskly manipu- 

 lated the surface of them. I thought then, and am still 

 more confident in the truth of the supposition now, that 

 if he had been briskly moved under clothes enough to in- 

 duce free perspiration, scraped, and kept in motion till the 

 order was given to saddle, he would have won the race, 



