A GREAT HORSE 



half an hour later seemed ready for another record- 

 breaking mile. Hundreds of men and women visited 

 his stall and watched the champion being cooled out. 

 When he was led out for a walk, after being rubbed 

 down, he showed no sign of weariness. His eye was 

 clear and bright, his respiration steady and he capered 

 like a kitten. 



The mark set by Cresceus indicated that the two- 

 minute trotter is no longer an impossibility. There 

 seemed to be little doubt in the minds of the horsemen 

 who witnessed the great mile that the champion would 

 have stepped fully a second faster, perhaps in 2:01, 

 or better, but for the opposition of the wind in the 

 last quarter. His half in 59! seconds was a record- 

 breaking performance. No other trotter had ever ap- 

 proached Cresceus's wonderful speed to the half, but 

 the greatest feat was the first three-quarters in i 130^, 

 which was a second and a quarter faster than that dis- 

 tance had ever been covered. It means that Cresceus 

 maintained two-minute speed for three-quarters of 

 a mile. He faced the wind for the first eighth with- 

 out which handicap his time would have been 1 130, 

 doubtless. In speaking of the performance after the 

 trial, Ketcham said : "I brought Cresceus to Columbus 

 to equal or lower his record if all conditions were fa- 

 vorable. I knew the track to be very fast when in good 

 condition, and all depended on the weather, for the 

 horse could be -relied on, and was on edge. Hut when 

 I drove him his warming-up mile and felt the terrific 



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