A GREAT HORSE 



field. Cresceus, too, made a break before reaching 

 the turn, but he recovered quickly, losing only a couple 

 of lengths, and his position at the pole. Benton M. 

 snatched the inside track, sprinting away with his nose 

 in front as the horses rounded the lower turn. Char- 

 ley Herr overhauled the white-faced sorrel stallion a 

 little way up the back-stretch, and took the lead and 

 the pole before the half-mile pole was passed. Round- 

 ing the upper turn, Cresceus closed on the Kentucky 

 stallion and was up to even terms as the pair swung 

 into the home-stretch. Kelley had a whip in one 

 hand, and a scraper in the other, and he used them 

 both when he called on honest little Charley Herr in 

 the home-stretch. Charley Herr was quickly seen to be 

 overmatched. Cresceus simply trotted at ease, coming 

 through the stretch with a stroke that was the perfec- 

 tion of trotting action. Ketcham never made a move 

 to drive the son of the 'old "Monarch of the Home- 

 stretch," and he completed his mile in the remarkable 

 time of 2 :c>7^, duplicating his great mile at Glens 

 Falls. Many watches in the hands of competent timers 

 caught the mile in 2 :o6}, and it showed that Cresceus 

 was even then beginning to show championship form. 

 He trotted the last quarter in 31^ seconds, and once 

 safely out in the lead Ketcham talked him back to 

 within one hundred and fifty feet of the wire, which 

 demonstrated that he could have gone faster had he 

 been forced to do so. It was a great race, and Cresceus 

 and his driver were given a great ovation at the con- 



60 



