14 THE BEGINNING. 



"The day before the race was trotted Harry Genet 

 met the owner of the gray gelding Rockingham, and 

 before they parted they agreed upon three $1,000 

 matches, the first to wagon, the second to harness and 

 the third to saddle. Rockingham was a Massachusetts 

 product, and I mention him here as these matches had 

 considerable to do with putting Budd Doble on his 

 feet as a trainer of record-breaking trotters. Rock- 

 ingham passed from Massachusetts, where he was 

 known as the "Granger colt," to Philadelphia and be- 

 came one of W. H. Doble's pupils. He was a winner 

 for him to harness and Budd, who was then twenty 

 years of age, gave the lofty going gray all of his saddle 

 work. When General Butler and Rockingham met 

 in their race to wagon the black gelding was the favor- 

 ite, but his backers' patience was tried, as two firsts 

 were entered on the book for the gray before Butler 

 settled down to business and won. He had plenty of 

 speed, as in the third heat he trotted a half in 1 113, but 

 was unsteady. Sam McLaughlin was employed to 

 drive Rockingham in the race to harness. It proved 

 a very unsatisfactory affair. Rockingham won the 

 first and third heats and Butler the second and fourth. 

 The Judges then decided to carry the race over to the 

 following day, when Rockingham pulled it off in 

 2:25^4, his harness record. In the saddle race Budd 

 Doble had the mount on the gray and gave him his 

 record of 2:22*4 in the second heat. Dan Mace 

 showed him the way to the wire on the next trip in 

 2:24^2. It was then supposed that Butler would go 

 on and win, as he was known to be a laster, but Budd 

 had a little more speed under him than was looked for, 

 as he came back with Rockingham in 2:23^ and 



