52 MEMOIR. 



pacers 2:18^2 for twelve heats, while the average for the 

 forty-seven heats at both gaits was a small fraction over 

 2:20^4. 



In the reflected light of the racing at the Grand Circuit 

 meeting, the showing during the fair in September was 

 very commonplace. The returns show that the roan 

 mare Elsie Groff won two races, making a record of 

 2 -.26 ji in the second heat of one of them, and that Jerome 

 was sent to the front in an eight-heat contest after the 

 judges had taken the matter in hand and declared a heat 

 void "because," as it was published at the time, "Jerome 

 was pulled." Billy L. and Tom Medley were the only 

 other trotters announced as winners that week, while a 

 galloper revelling in the name of Proctor Knott, which 

 subsequently became famous when tacked on to the first 

 Futurity winner, landed a dash of a mile in 1 149. 



Small fields and high-class racing were the distin- 

 guishing features at the Grand Circuit meeting in 1881. 

 Of the eleven races for trotters on the programme, four 

 of them had but four starters, while only three took the 

 word in the 2:21 class in which Edwin Thorne defeated 

 Voltaire and the Canadian mare Lucy, who, in order to 

 distinguish her from the old-time trotting queen and 

 Keyes celebrated pacer, was dubbed the "Queen's Own." 

 In the first heat of the race Edwin Thorne won by a neck 

 from Lucy in 2:20^. On the next trip they were heads 

 apart at the wire, 2 :27„ Voltaire being between the Thorn- 

 dale gelding and Lucy. In the deciding heat it was Thorne 

 all the way in 2:22. The 2:15 trot and free-for-all pace 

 proved the sensational features of the week. Charley 

 Ford, Robert McGregor, Midnight and Hopeful took the 

 word in the former, while seven "side wheelers" an- 

 swered the bell in the pace. Mattie Hunter was the fav- 



