EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 113 



good horses, as Billy Reading of Cuba has been to Kentucky 

 buying several fine ones to send by Charles Dickennan when 

 he returns. They are going to a man who lives in France who 

 purchased last year Mollie Wilkes and Misty Morning. They 

 will have to contend with several good ones from my ship- 

 ments, one of them the chestnut mare Blue Belle. Everyone 

 here that was acquainted with her knows that she was one of 

 the greatest race horses that America ever produced. Ken- 

 dall, her driver, and Blue Belle, had the reputation of being 

 the greatest pair of half-mile track goers that the world ever 

 saw. .They were a terror to all competitors. The last season 

 she was here they were barred out of the Vermont Circuit, 

 where she had been in the habit of going every year and get- 

 ting all the money. If she had not been expelled from the 

 National Association for trotting out of her class and under 

 an assumed name, $10,000 would not have bought her, but 

 she was no good for trotting purposes here on that account. 

 I bought her for half of that amount. Her being disqualified 

 here did not affect her trotting career in Europe, as they have 

 not framed any regular trotting rules as yet over there. She 

 has been a terror to all other competitors in France, Austria, 

 Italy and Germany, and has beat all the other horses im- 

 ported, even those that have cost double her purchase price. 

 She has won every big purse that she has started for, conse- 

 quently it has been a great card for me, and has been the 

 means of my selling a number of other horses. But it is a 

 pretty hard matter to find another Blue Belle in this country 

 or any other, for she was always ready and willing to trot a 

 good race about four times a week over any kind of track and 

 all kinds of weather. I am creditably informed that her 

 owner has refused $12,000 for her. She has won over $20,- 

 000 for him in the last two years and a half. 



Van Buren Girl has been equally as good a race mare, but 

 not as fast, as Blue Belle, and has earned him fully as much 

 money, having one more season's campaigning to her credit, 

 he having bought her a year prior to Blue Belle's advent on 



