216 Making the American Thoroughbred 



come back after the heat to occupy his old place, and never did 'a 

 right hand man' do better service; from his place, with his head 

 above the roof of the stand, he could telegraph all the movements of 

 the horses, and he really acquitted himself so well that the Judges 

 have the vanity to felicitate themselves (as we do) that they really 

 saw the race! As we have before remarked, Barney pulled his mare 

 out on the hard path, and resigned the deep sand to Laird if he chose 

 to take it which he did, and that so suddenly that many supposed 

 Fashion ' had her sure.' It was a terrible moment! We hardly recol- 

 lect any circumstance, save the bolting of Blue Dick, which appeared 

 to give such an electric shock to the spectators of a race. We heard 

 people shout in Kentucky when Grey Eagle won a heat from Wagner, 

 and therefore shall not brag on what we can do here; the reader may 

 take our word for it the noise was 'pretty particular considerable/ 

 if not more! They approach the half mile post 'How are they 

 now, Conover? ' ' Fashion's not above a neck ahead ! ' ' Now Pey ton a 

 gains a little! ' They go up the hill ' It's head and head with 'em! ' 

 ' Fashion still keeps it ' round the turn in front of the late Club House. 

 Up the stretch they come like twin bullets, Peytona appearing to 

 care nothing for the crowd, to which she ran so close that Barney 

 could have hit the front rank with his whip! They came through 

 lapt, in 1:58, Fashion being a head and shoulders, perhaps, in front- 

 Throughout the whole second mile the contest was equally severe; 

 Fashion could lead by a neck down the straight side, but Pey tona' s 

 prodigious strength told at the hill, and at this point she invariably 

 gained. The second mile was run in i : 54, Fashion coming in a few 

 feet ahead as before. The spectators were hushed by the thrilling 

 excitement of such a contest! Nothing equal to it was ever seen 

 here before! Respiration appeared to be suspended in tens of thou- 

 sands! their very hearts seemed to beat audibly, as if viewing 

 some stupendous convulsion of Nature! Fashion, though she could 

 not shake off her dauntless competitor, looked very much like a 

 winner, as she commenced the 3d mile. She appeared to be in more 

 force than in the ist heat; Peytona, however, was apparently not 

 in the least inclined to cut it. In entering on this 3d mile Peytona 

 got such a hint from Barney to 'go along,' that she made a slashing 

 burst of it round the first turn to near the quarter mile post, but she 

 did not gain a yard! ' Fashion will beat her! ' exclaimed our Mentor, 

 in most lugubrious accents, and between ourselves, 'my friendly,' 

 [the reader,] it would have just 'raised you out of your boots,' to 

 have witnessed the different and changed expressions of the faces 



