The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



155 



satilc Fasig, and others, too numerous 

 almost to mention, who could spend a hun- 

 dred dollars entertaining their friends all in- 

 side of two or three hours at the hotels after 

 the day's races, and remained ever loyal to 

 the trotters, through panics and all upsets of 

 markets or legal calculations, who could well 

 afford to lose the small sums they wagered 

 out of pure sentiment, and who never 

 stopped to figure whether their horses in 

 training paid their way, and who, on winning 

 a stake, always presented the net amount to 

 the trainer and in addition "remembered the 

 hoys" to the tune of fifty apiece or such mat- 

 ter, all has forever passed into the pleasant 

 past of our trotting turf history. 



The 



CHAPTER III 



Old Story— "The Best 



the Mare Ever Foaled" 



Colt 



FEW", very few, among our mer- 

 chants today keep a mare or two 

 at some near-the-city stock farm, 

 and. regularly, when brain- 

 fagged or the weather is too hot 

 to be enjoyed in town, organize a parlor car 

 party and spend a week-end at the stock 

 farms, hopeful that their favorite road mare, 

 now retired to the ranks of the matrons, mav 



yet throw a stake winner, and rarely counting 

 cost of keep, or other expense, so long as the 

 colts come straight and resemble some 

 especially famed ancestor. 



Did you ever see the fond owner who 

 failed to remark, as the week-old youngster 

 slicks out his boot-brushlike tail and strides 

 off a rod or two, "That's a trotter, and he is 

 by all odds the best the old mare has 

 foaled !" It's the old story. Always are they 

 best at week-old form and later, if perchance 

 a curb appears to be "set" and not a case of 

 sickle-hock-that-will-straighten-with-age, you 

 know how sure they are to have "slipped on 

 the ice and somehow thrown out that curb, 

 etc." Of course, it is to be regretted. Al- 

 ways did we draw our finger down the back 

 tendon and try to convince ourselves that, at 

 the curb-joint the leg was clean and that it 

 was but a matter of prominent "side" devel- 

 opment. Not even "rounding" were we ready 

 to admit. No, no colt ever, even today, I 

 presume, is foaled admittedly curby, and 

 always some stall strain, some trifling acci- 

 dent causes it all. 



Who ever saw- a broken down juvenile that 

 wasn't the fastest thing when a two-year-old 

 ever foaled in the county ? Nothing ever had 

 the excuses made for it to compare with the 

 colt of high hopes, expensive service fee and 

 extensive staking, and ever will it be thus. 



"THE BEST COLT THE MARE EVER FOALED" 



Quilberta (2), 2:29 3-4, by Bingara, dam Regal Lassie, 2:26 1-4, by Ralph Rex, 2:26 3-4. 



Holding the Filly is William Wright, Stallioneer at the Allen Farm. 



Owned by Everett L. Smith 



