PEEPAEING FOE THE EAGE. 403 



owner of a horse should take pains that his rate is not 

 known sooner than will be of advantage to himself. The 

 public have a claim that must be allowed, viz. : that a 

 horse must win if* he can. Further than this they have 

 none; and if a trainer is foolish enough to tell Tom, Dick, 

 and Harry of some wonderful trial his horse has made, 

 he must not be surprised if they have forestalled him in 

 the market, and he can only get his money on at unfavor- 

 able odds, made so by his own lack of judgment. This is 

 not all. Should the horse be unable to come up to the 

 private performance, and be beaten, the driver is stig- 

 matized as a villain who has induced betting for his own 

 profit, or has prevented the horse from winning when he 

 could. 



To have the Falcon in order for the race we contem- 

 plate putting him in, it will not be necessary, or even 

 advantageous, to strain him up very high. He would trot 

 to-day mile heats with ease to himself. As he increases 

 his speed, which he will be more apt to do under medium 

 than heavy work, he will require better condition. When 

 giving him the move I mentioned, with the hood on, it 

 will be well enough to time him, and five or six days be- 

 fore the race, we can give him a trial of a mile and repeat, 

 which will be some guide to what he can do. After this 

 trial we will "fog him out" by giving a very light sweat 

 under clothes. A half-mile brush the morning after this 

 sweat, and plenty of slow work, will be all that is neces- 

 sary, in my opinion, to have him trot in proper form. 



Never Mind will be benefited by keeping up the sweats 

 in the same manner as you have been giving them though 

 you must remove the clothing from his loin and quarters 

 of course increasing the speed as you drive him. In 

 the meantime, you can jog him on the harrowed part of 

 the track, and have the soil loosened whenever it becomes 

 the least hard. We will also have to give him a trial, 



