196 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 



of the best pacer I had ever had, if one could get her man- 

 nered. 



"I bought her about a month later for Mr. J. A. Mclrvine, 

 of Gait, Ontario, for $3,000. We took her to Mt. Clemens 

 that winter and raced her over the ice, and in her race she 

 acted bad and lost the first two heats but went on and won 

 the next three and the race. Then we shipped her home to 

 Gait, where she was prepared and we staked her over the 

 half mile tracks. She won two or three of her early stake 

 starts but continued to be a very, very bad actor. 



"We at last concluded that she might become a better 

 actor if raced on the mile tracks and in acting on that con- 

 clusion we shipped her to North Randall for the second 

 Grand Circuit meeting and she arrived there about ten days 

 before she was to race. I worked her in 2:03'%|^ but in her 

 race she was again bad mannered and got beat in 2:051/4. 



"Mr. Mclrvine sold her that night for $1,000 to Mr. 

 Robert Merrigold, of Hamilton, Ontario, and we shipped her 

 back to the half-mile tracks and won the rest of the stakes in 

 which she was engaged. Then we tried the mile tracks again. 

 At the Columbus fall meeting she was beaten in 2:0314 ^^ 

 her first race. Before I started her the following week I 

 found she was brushing one of her knees and so I went at 

 her shoeing and had some changes made. I had her feet 

 made perfectly level and also equipped her with a pair 

 of heavier knee boots. 



"The changes must have done her good for when T 

 started her the next week, the second week of the meeting, 

 she won in 2:031/4. When we took her on to Lexington and 

 she won both of her races. We then went on to Atlanta and 

 she won her race there. 



"That ended her first season's campaign in our stable 

 and we took her back to Canada and jogged her all winter 

 and in the spring prepared for another Grand Circuit cam- 

 paign. After her first race at Columbus, she seemed to 

 change her view of things generally, for from that time on, 

 she was always a good actor and made no trouble at all. 



"She wore hopples, shadow roll, knee boots and side 

 pole. Her bridle was an open one, the bit a Blue Ribbon. 



