UHLAN 41 



belongs in this volume it is presented in substance as he pre- 

 pared it in the fall of 1910. He said: 



"Uhlan became the property of Mr. Billings at Colum- 

 bus, 0., September 29th, 1909 and was turned over to me 

 that day by his trainer, Robert Proctor, of Readville, Mass. 

 Let me say here that the condition Uhlan was then in is the 

 best evidence of the training skill of that capable man. It 

 was left to me to make him a two-minute trotter, by the rec- 

 ords, yet Proctor had shown that he had him close to the 

 mark in the race at North Randall, where, trotting on the out- 

 side all the way, he had forced Hamburg Belle to a throat- 

 latch finish in 2:0114 ^^d that I thought was about equal to 

 a mile in two minutes where the stage was set and everything 

 favored him. He was in perfect physical condition. Not as 

 much as a pimple on his legs, he was as fresh as a horse could 

 be and was carr^ang more flesh than when I had seen him, 

 first, weeks before — and he had all his Svhizz'. 



"More than that he was perfectly mannered and that is 

 another bit of testimony as to the ability of the man who 

 brought him out. Very few people realize how highly organ- 

 ized Uhlan really is, so good has his deportment always been. 

 It is well known that any trotter that does his mile in two 

 minutes or better must be keyed high, but it does not follow 

 that they should lack good mannrs. On the other hand it is 

 quite easy to spoil them as to manners and Uhlan could 

 easily have been spoiled early in life had he not been 

 handled with judgment. Not only is he high-strung, not only 

 has he a will of his own, but he is, with it, an exceedingly 

 wise horse. Few as brainy as he have I ever known nor with 

 so much of what we call individuality. The fact that he came 

 to me so tractable is most creditable to the man who devel- 

 oped him and he can justly pride himself upon that as well 

 as upon the other splendid work he did with him. 



"We shipped Uhlan to North Randall at once; it was 

 Wednesday, as Mr. Billings was coming on from New York 

 for the Saturday matinee. I asked Mr. Proctor to accompany 

 us and be on hand to post us as to Uhlan's peculiarities and 

 he did all and more that we requested, explaining minutely 

 all he thought would help. Saturday was a 'mean' day and 



