RIFLE. 129 



one of the worst snarled up races ever seen on a track. 

 There were seven starters and nine heats were trotted, the 

 time in all of them being below 2 :20 before the Judge 

 announced Newcastle as the winner. Of the other starters 

 Bourbon Wilkes, Jr., Eloise and Count Robert each won 

 two heats, while Belle Cassett had two seconds and Io 

 one before they were ruled out. At this meeting, Fasig 

 also won a race with the black gelding Rifle. He was a 

 handy little fellow and at that time acted as if he were 

 always looking about for a bird or a shadow to scare him. 

 Volney French brought him out as a two-year-old at the 

 last meeting of the Ohio /\ssociation of Trotting Horse 

 Breeders, where he was defeated by Operetta. As a 

 three-year-old, Rifle won two races at Ashtabula and one 

 over the Longview track at Cleveland, where he made a 

 record of 2:3454. He also trotted third to Red Bird in 

 a stake race at Milwaukee. During the winter Fasig 

 purchased Volney French's interest in Rifle and turned 

 him over to Pat Shank. In 1894 he started Rifle in five 

 races and won four of them, giving him a record of 

 2:18^4 in the fifth heat of a postponed race at Tiffin, O., 

 where he defeated a field of fourteen. At this race meet- 

 ing, Eloise won third money in the free-for-all, her sec- 

 ond to Magnolia in 2 :i2>/i being the fastest mile she ever 

 trotted in a race. Later on Fasig also hooked Eloise and 

 Rifle double. The first time they turned around together 

 they reeled off a mile in 2:17, and, by the way, if you 

 will make a note of such performances, you will find in 

 nine times out of ten the first time a pair of fast harness 

 performers are hitched double they will step faster than 

 they ever will afterwards. This was true of Clingstone and 

 Guy, Boralma and Senator L., Direct Hal and Prince 

 Direct and a dozen other pairs that I can now call to 



