PETER MANNING 79 



has had much to do with his changing attitude. As Mike 

 McDevitt says, "sugar is a great civilizer for horses." 



There never was a better doer. There may have been 

 many just as good, but there will never be found one who is 

 better. Nothing appears to disturb him. and he ships as if he 

 had been a railroader all his life. His appetite is always 

 keen, but he is in no sense a glutton. Like many other great 

 horses have been, he is partial to hay and wants plenty of it 

 all the time. It follows that he gets it. 



His weight? Well, one person's guess is as good as an- 

 other's. He has not been on the scales since he joined the 

 Murphy establishment, but he looks very much like a thou- 

 sand pounds or so, say fifty for the "so", and he holds his 

 weight remarkably well, no matter how strenuous his cam- 

 paign may be. He is a big gelding, measuring 15 hands S^/g 

 inches at the withers, and while there are none of the so- 

 called heroic lines about him, his conformation is quite 

 pleasing and one gentleman who may be considered, in fact 

 is, a thoughtful observer, says that he appears to grow better 

 looking each succeeding year. On this point Mr. Murphy re- 

 lates an incident which fits well at this point of our narrative. 



In the early winter when Peter Manning was a newcomer 

 to the Poughkeepsie caravan, a party of gentlemen paid the 

 place a visit. i\mong them were two quite prominent track 

 managers. When they visited the stables the first horse shown 

 them was Peter Manning. They were in the stall with the 

 then three-year-old, and Tommy was attending to some small 

 matter not far away. The two track managers looked the 

 gelding over very carefully, and finally one of them said: 

 "I don't see what Murph saw in that common-looking thing to 

 put all that money in him**, then asked his fellow manager, 

 "Do you?"' The prompt answer was "No, I don't; he's the 

 commonest thing I ever saw." 



It is presumed that he looked better to them the next year 

 when he won the rich stakes their associations off^ered for trot- 

 ters. But while Peter is not what would be called a beauty, 

 he has a "business" look which conforms quite well to his 

 business-like way of doing things, and there is an old saying 

 that "handsome is as handsome does" — not particularly ele- 



