Wagner vs. Gray Eagle 207 



Gray Eagle, as the champion of the haughty 

 Kentuckians. That race took place upon Mon- 

 day. On Saturday there was a Jockey Club 

 Purse of ^1500, at four-mile heats, to which both 

 horses were eligible. And when it was announced 

 that the two would meet again, the excitement 

 was even more intense than on the first occasion. 

 In anticipation of a race which, for severity 

 and interest, would throw their first in the shade, 

 both parties were wide awake to secure every 

 honorable advantage within their reach. Wagner's 

 rider, Cato, had become a freeman about the time 

 of the first race ; if he rode the second as well as 

 he did the first, many were the odd twenties and 

 fifties he was promised. Stephen Welch, Gray 

 Eagle's jockey in his first race, weighing but 

 82 pounds, the managers of the horse endeav- 

 ored to find a rider nearer up to his proper 

 weight, 100 pounds. The only one on the 

 ground preferable to their own was Mr. McCargo's 

 Archer, a very capital rider, with a good seat, a 

 steady hand, and a cool head. Mr. McCargo, hav- 

 ing no interest whatever in the race, at once placed 

 Archer's services at the disposal of Gray Eagle's 

 friends ; but as his doing so might possibly place 

 him in a position of great delicacy and embarrass- 



