288 THE GOLDSMITHS. 



1894. MARY BEST ALAR. 



Like an arrow of light she flashed through the field, 

 Passed Bowne and challenged the black; 

 Aunt Delilah was beaten and Judge Fisher reeled, 

 As Mary Best burned up the track. 

 She was not in the play and brought many to grief, 

 When she trimmed the brown horse and crumpled Rose 

 Leaf. 



John Goldsmith spent the winter of 1893-4 in the 

 old homestead at Walnut Grove Farm in Orange 

 County, his California bred horses and the few others 

 which he had accepted for the campaign of 1894 occu- 

 pying the box stalls which had in former days sheltered 

 the descendants of Volunteer, and when he shipped 

 to Cleveland to fill his Grand Circuit engagements, 

 Alden, the only son of his brother, was acting as his 

 assistant. John was not feeling any too well at the 

 time, but when the bell rang at Detroit in July he 

 was ready for the word and won with the Alcantara 

 mare Alar in 2:14^, while Oro Wilkes was third to 

 Azote, Mary Best, a sister to Muta Wilkes, fourth to 

 Rose Leaf, and the Albert W. pacer Amelia fourth 

 to Joe Patchen. At Cleveland the following week 

 Rose Leaf was considered invincible. When Col. 

 Edwards gave the word she was a favorite over the 

 field, and when the .result was announced it was 

 found that she had saved her entrance. E. R. Bowne 

 stepped out in the first two heats and won with Ma- 

 hogany in 2:13, 2\i2 I A. As the Bayonne Prince stal- 

 lion had never gone such a clip before, he faltered in 

 the third mile and Goldsmith won with Mary Best 

 in 2:12^4, her record. After that it was all over but 



