78 The American Thoroughbred 



principal owner of Argyle in the days of his 

 glory, but parted with two-thirds of him before 

 his fatal encounter with Bascombe, at Augusta, 

 Georgia. Colonel Johnson of Virginia purchased 

 one-third of him, and Colonel Hampton the other 

 third. So confident were the owners of Argyle 

 that he must win (and there was a great deal 

 to justify this belief from his previous trials), 

 that the race was booked as a certainty. The 

 calculations, however, that are made on such 

 occasions are always dangerous. They do very 

 well as long as Time is a horse's only competitor, 

 but afford no ground of reasonable conjecture as 

 to what another and a better horse may do. The 

 backers of Argyle concluded that as he could run 

 his first heat under eight minutes with a strong 

 pull, it was not probable that Bascombe would 

 beat him. 



Colonel Paul Fitzsimons, although living dur- 

 ing the last years of his life on the Georgia side 

 of the line, yet from the strong ties of birth and 

 blood which bound him to South Carolina, was 

 always regarded as a Carolinian. He was "off 

 and on " the turf for a considerable time, both in 

 South Carolina and Georgia, and was a very 

 useful member of the different clubs in the tw^o 



