JAY-EYE-SEE AND SOME MATCH RACES 



Wilkes. Or, in case Mr. France does accept and 

 trots Harry Wilkes against Maxey Cobb, I will offer 

 to increase the stake or purse one-third and trot one 

 of my horses in the race on the terms mentioned in 

 the challenge." 



Following this W. C. France came to my office 

 and dictated a proposition: 



" I will trot Harry Wilkes against Maxey Cobb 

 and Phallas, three or five races, commencing at the 

 Cleveland Circuit Meeting, for a stake of $1000 

 each, each track over which a race is trotted to add 

 $3000; the stake and added money to be divided 

 into three parts, fifty, thirty, and twenty per cent. If 

 Trinket wishes to come in, and if Mr. Cohnfeld and 

 Mr. Case will agree, I am willing to admit her to the 

 race. While I know Harry Wilkes to be a good 

 horse, I do not regard him as the equal of Jay-eye- 

 see, and therefore bar the little black gelding from 

 the stake." 



Mr. Nathan Straus also had the match fever, and 

 June 17, 1885, Phallas beat Majolica at Fleetwood 

 Park for $5000. I shall not attempt to follow the dis- 

 cussions growing out of the challenges, because space 

 is limited. I simply wish to record the fact that the 

 match talk excited the public mind, and thousands 

 were thus attracted to the trotting horse, who other- 

 wise would not have given a thought to him. A 

 long becalmed sea is destructive of sport. Phallas, 

 who was by Dictator out of Betsy Trotwood by 



47 



