74 EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 



Don and put my money on him accordingly. He pulled off 

 the money according to rule after a hard race of five or six 

 heats, of which King Ahnont won two in 2:25^ and 2:25. I 

 think he could have won another if the money had been 

 right. He proved himself a better horse than I thought, as 

 he had no work over a mile track up to this time. The next 

 week he was entered at Hartford in the 2:25 class, in a good 

 field of horses. [Barbara Patchen 2:24|, Handicap 2:22, 

 Index 2:21, Magic 2:25^, Maggie F., 2:26, Valley Boy 2•.2^, 

 and Jack Sailor 2:25^.] I placed my faith in the big stallion 

 and played a few hundred dollars in money. He won the 

 race after five heats. I laid up the first heat, not making a 

 move for it. Handicap won it in 2:24|^. I won the second 

 heat in 2:22|- ; in the third heat I threw a shoe and it was won 

 in 2:24:|^ by Barbara Patchen. I won the fourth heat in 2:23^, 

 fifth heat in 2:23. 



The next week I entered him at Providence, R. I., and 

 started him in the 2:23 class against Stephen G., Frank, Handi- 

 cap, and Sleepy Joe, a horse that had not been beaten a race 

 that year down the line. My race at Providence was to have 

 been trotted on Tuesday, but was postponed until Thursday 

 on account of bad weather. I had Almont entered to 

 trot on Friday at Mystic Park, Boston, I was a little grecd\' 

 for money and thought he was made of iron. I thought he 

 Could win both races, and in order to save him as much as 

 possible, I shifted my tactics and decided I would close this 

 race up in three heats instead of laying him up the first heat. 

 I went away and won the first heat in 2:21^*. In the second 

 heat my horse stepped in a loose place near the cpiarter pole 

 and made a bad break, Stephen G. winning the heat in 2:23i. 

 I won the third heat in 2:22|. Sleepy Joe had been laying up 

 all this time and had not moved for a heat. When we got 

 the word for the fourth time he turned loose and came at me, 

 and we went lapped the entire mile. I had too much confi- 

 dence in the King and was driving him a little too easy in the 

 stretch, not keeping at him in my hammer and tongs way as 



