The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



165 



in a conciliating manner: "Tush, tush, I know 

 you must moan all right. Now please me by 

 going down and getting your horse ready for 



the next heat." 



Being very stuffy over having been wronged, 

 the next heat 1 scored down in fourth horse 

 place, and Hatch gave the word to a good 

 start while I was in that position. Again 

 my speedway education came to me and 1 

 mentally told "Hud that it was in front for 

 us or nothing," and in front we went. This 

 time there was no question where I finished. 

 Good judges, and perfect strangers to me, 

 said that I had distanced over half the horses 

 in the race, hut they were all declared in and 

 started when we scored for the third heat. 



At the finish of this heat, too, a number of 

 the horses were behind the flag, but only two 

 were declared out. The fourth heat was the 

 same. "Nothing to it" — and I had won the 

 first race that I had ever driven in for money. 



A Air. Wiggins then entered the judges' 

 stand and protested Budweiser as a ringer, 

 claiming that he had a mark of 2:10, and :ny 

 winnings were held up. They also made a 

 claim that the gelding, while entered by Lon 

 Newbert, was not owned by him, and that Air. 

 Newbert was not a citizen of Maine. This. 

 of course, placed us in bad all around. 



I knew that I could prove a clean bill of 

 health for Budweiser when it came to a show- 

 down, so when we got back to the hotel we 

 called Lon up on the long-distance 'phone and 

 told him our experience, explaining to him 

 that it was up to him to prove that he owned 

 the horse, and that he was a citizen of the 

 state of Maine. 



By direction of Lon, Walter got his father 

 to make out a tax bill for the years 1901-2 

 against Lon Newbert, Lon mailing a check 

 payable to the treasurer of the city of Rock- 

 land, for these two poll tax bills. 



I instructed my bookkeeper to take the 

 check, which Lon had made out in payment of 

 the horse, and deposit the same to my account 

 in the bank. 



In due time we sent the cancelled check in 

 payment of the horse and the two years' tax 

 bills of Lon Newbert to W. H. Gocher, of 

 Hartford. He ordered the association to pay 

 Air. Newbert his money, $125, before they 

 opened the gates for another race at the Rock- 

 land track. 



Hatch afterwards explained to me that 

 there was one man in the stand, who acted as 

 judge that day, that could not show a clean 

 bill of health to Mr. Gocher, if it was put up 

 to him, which was the reason that the judges 

 did not put Budweiser and myself out of busi- 

 ness, and that I had acted so bold and fearless 

 that they immediately thought that I had the 



goods on them, in having inside information 

 regarding this particular man. 



But I didn't; it was pure ignorance on my 

 part, as I had no idea of their power in the 

 premises. I know better now. 



CHAPTER III 



A Dead Game Sport Ruins a Bril- 

 liant Racing Prospect 



HOW a good horse can sometimes 

 be spoiled on the speedway and 

 that it doesn't always pay to be 

 too game a sport was never bet- 

 ter shown than in the race be- 

 tween Charlena, 2:22 1-4, and Rubsley G., 

 2:16 1-2, on the Blue Hill Avenue Speedway 

 in the Fall of 1902. 



The pacer, Rubsley G., was one of those old- 

 fashioned race horses that would race all day 

 and then come out ready for more. I had 

 seen him race many times and admired him 

 very much. He was owned by Jesse Moulton, 

 and his home was in Gallup's stable. 



Charlena was owned by C. C. Blaney. She 

 was an extremely fast mare, very high-spir- 

 ited, but of delicate constitution. She had 

 shown many miles in her work in 2:15, or bet- 

 ter, and looked like a beautiful racing pros- 

 pect. 



One night at the club, during recess, the 

 talk started on the most consistent race horse 

 in the club. I could not see any but Rubsley 

 G., and said so. For an everyday, rain or shine 

 horse, there was nothing to it but Rubsley G. 

 Anyone that is acquainted with Mr. Blaney 

 knows that he would not possibly agree with 

 that, especially as he was sure that he had the 

 best horse in his own stable. They also know 

 that in an argument of that nature, with him, 

 it is put up or shut up, and that is what came 

 to pass before the argument was finished. 



The proposition, finally, was that the two 

 horses race quarter-mile heats, best three in 

 five, on three consecutive Saturdays, rain or 

 shine, snow or ice, for $150; $50 for each 

 race. 



The first race day was bitter cold. The 

 opening heat was won by Charlena, the second 

 by Rubsley G., the third by Charlena, and the 

 fourth and fifth by Rubsley G. The cold wind 

 had chilled the mare so that by the time the 

 fifth heat was started she was fairly frozen up. 



The second race day was rainy and the 

 ground was mud to the horses' fetlocks, but 

 the going suited Rubsley G., and he won in 

 four heats. 



The third race day the speedway was in a 

 terrible condition, very rough and frozen and 

 not fit for mules to walk over, not to mention 



