CRESCEUS, 2:02V^ 



Tommy Britton, Octavia, Pasonte, Pat Watson and 

 Caryle Carne. Tommy Britton won the first and sec- 

 ond heats in 2:ioh 2:09!, and he looked as if he liad 

 the race at his mercy. Cresceus, however, seemed to 

 have recovered some of his former flight of speed in 

 the third heat ; he burst away with all the old rush of 

 speed and won the heat in 2 109 j reducing his record 

 from 2:11^ and making him a member of the 2:10 

 class. He came back and won the fourth heat in 

 2:1 1 J, and then he was forced to surrender to Tommy 

 Britton, who won the fifth heat and the race in 2:12^. 

 Cresceus was now a member of the coveted 2 :io class, 

 but his colors had been lowered by the Chicago stallion. 

 Tommy Britton, a horse whose admirers were persist- 

 ent in saying would prove a champion and lower all 

 previous records held by trotting stallions. 



At Columbus, Ohio, on August 5. Cresceus again 

 started in the 2:12 trot, and he met those fast cam- 

 paigners. Eagle Flannagan, the Abbot, a trotter who 

 was beginning to be talked about as a coming cham- 

 pion, Octavia, Pat Watson, Pasonte and May Fern. The 

 race proved to be a battle between Eagle Flannagan 

 and The Abl^ot. The big Eagle Bird gelding won the 

 first heat in 2 109^, after which the Abbot came on and 

 won the second and third heats in 2 :o8^, 2 :o8J. These 

 two fast miles, however, took considerable of The Ab- 

 bot's steam, and Eagle Flannagan won the fourth and 

 fifth heats and the race in 2 iio^, 2:12}. Cresceus was 

 a factor in the race, but he was not his old self, and he 



39 



