2o6 The American Tboroughhred 



not so we should be in a mess. Had the managers 

 of Gray Eagle been content to bide their time, 

 another tale mis^ht have been told. ' Wait and 

 win ' carries off more purses than ' Take the track 

 and keep it' Gray Eagle could outfoot Wagner 

 in a brush of one hundred and fifty yards — he 

 clearly demonstrated that fact half a dozen times 

 in the course of a week ; but in a run of five or 

 six hundred yards, Wagner could beat him about 

 the same distance. The two horses were so 

 nearly matched that good generalship and good 

 riding did the business. Instead of allowing him 

 to go forward and cut out the work, Gray Eagle 

 should have been laid quietly behind, with a 

 steady, bracing pull, until within the distance stand, 

 and then pulled out, and made to win if he could. 

 That was his only chance ; tiring down Wagner 

 is like tiring down a locomotive. 



" We must here break off, but not without 

 remarking that after being weighed, Cato was put 

 up again on Wagner, and with the stakes in his 

 hand — $14,000! — he promenaded in front of the 

 stand, preceded by a band of music playing 

 ' Old Virginny never tire.' " 



Thus ended the first meeting between Wagner, 

 representing the aristocratic Louisianians, and 



