188 THK HORSE. 



straight line for the lead. The preconcerted signal was a single 

 tap of the drum. All was now breathless anxiety ; the horses came 

 up evenly ; the eventful signal was heard, they went off liand- 

 somely together ; Henry, apparently quickest, made play from the 

 score, obtained the lead, and then took a hard pull. By the 

 time they had gone the first quarter of a mile, which brought 

 them round the first turn, to the commencement of what is 

 termed the back side of the course, which is a straight run, 

 comprising the second quarter of a mile, he was full three lengths 

 ahead ; this distance he with little variation maintained, running 

 steadily, with a hard pull, during the first, second, third, and 

 for about three-fourths of the fourth round or mile ; the pace 

 all this time a killing one. It may be proper to note, that the 

 course is nearly an oval, of one mile, with this small variation, 

 that the back and front are straight lines of about a quarter of 

 a mile each, connected at each extremity by semicircles of also 

 a quarter of a mile each. When the horses were going the last 

 round, being myself well mounted, I took my station at the 

 commencement of the stretch or last quarter, where I expected 

 a violent exertion would be made at this last straight run in, 

 when they left the straight j)art on the back of the course, and 

 entered upon the last turn. Henry was, as heretofore, not less 

 than three lengths in the clear ahead. They had not proceeded 

 more than twenty rods upon the first part of the sweep, when 

 Eclipse made play, and the spur and whip were both applied 

 freely ; when they were at the extreme point or centre of the 

 sweep, I observed the right hand of Crafts disengaged iVom 

 his bridle, making free use of his whip ; when they had swept 

 about three-fourths of the way round the turn, and had ad- 

 vanced within twenty-five rods of ray station, I clearly saw 

 that Crafts was making every exertion with both spur and whip 

 to get Eclipse forward, and scored him sorely, both before and 

 behind the girths ; at this moment Eclipse threw his tail into 

 the air, and flirted it up and down, after the manner of a tired 

 horse, or one in distress and great pain ; and John Buckley, the 

 jockey — and present trainer — who I kept stationed by my side, 

 observed, " Eclipse is done." When they passed me about the 

 commencement of the stretch, seventy to eighty rods from home, 

 the space between them was about sixteen feet, or a full length 



