BIKE SULKY CUT RECORDS. 131 



and the middle half in I :oi^. The time made also 

 reduced the track record for trotters and was a new 

 world's record for geldings. In the second heat, Azote 

 passed the three-quarters in I 133^2, a quarter of a second 

 slower than in the preceding heat, and, as Hulda was all 

 out, Azote won as he pleased in 2 :o8^. A third heat in 

 2 :io finished the race. In the free-for-all pace, Robert J. 

 was considered invincible, so much so that he was barred 

 in the early betting, the bulk of the play being on Joe 

 Patchen or Directly for the place. \\ nen it came to 

 racing there was a very different state of affairs, as in the 

 first heat Joe Patchen had Robert J. beaten, when he 

 slipped on a wet spot near the long distance and made a 

 break. Robert J. won the heat in 2:05^, a new track 

 record. The next three heats were won by Joe Patchen, 

 the first in 2 :o4j4, by a head, and the next two each by a 

 length in 2:05, 2:05^4. The mile in 2:04% reduced the 

 track record a second, while the 2 105^4 in the fourth heat 

 was a world's record, and the time for the race was six 

 and a quarter seconds faster than the best on record for a 

 four-heat race. Those who attended this meeting will 

 recall Larabie's fourth heat in 2 :i2}^, when he won the 

 three-year-old race and the straight heat victories of Bas- 

 sora, Sunland Clay, Bright Regent, Altao, Bouncer and 

 Beuzetta, and the stubbornly contested races which were 

 won by Bravado, Klamath, Yalleau and the hoppled trot- 

 ter El Rami. One hundred and thirty horses started in 

 the fourteen races. They trotted and paced sixty-one 

 heats, for which the average time was a small fraction 

 under 2:11^4. The twenty-one heats paced averaged 

 2 :09 1-7, and the forty trotted averaged 2:13 1-20. Eight 

 of the heats trotted were in 2:10 or better, the fastest 

 being Azote's mile in 2:06^, and the slowest during the 



