132 MEMOIR. 



week, 2:17^4, by El Rami. Twelve of the heats paced 

 were in 2:10 or better. Joe Patchen's mile in 2 104.34 

 was the fastest at that gait, while the slowest of the 

 twenty-one was finished in 2 : 12^. These figures, when 

 compared with the column of averages in the synopsis of 

 the Cleveland meetings, show plainer than words the part 

 played by the bike sulky in the reduction of the uniform 

 rate of speed in harness races and this applies not only to 

 the mile tracks where the footing is as smooth as a bil- 

 liard table, but also over the "cow path" at the fairs. This 

 change in equipment also came at a time when it looked 

 as though the regulation track records of Maud S. and 

 Johnston would never be beaten, although Sunol had 

 trotted in 2:0834, and Palo Alto in 2:08% over the kite 

 track at Stockton in 1891, and Direct had paced in 2:06 

 over the kite track at Independence the same season, and 

 since that time the landslide of race and time records 

 towards the two-minute goal, which Star Pointer passed 

 in 1897, has been so marked that one can be pardoned, if 

 after looking over the field, for stating that the bike sulky 

 did more to increase the uniform rate of speed in harness 

 races than breeding and training had accomplished in the 

 preceding fifteen years. 



The last fall meeting of the Cleveland Driving Park 

 Company was held October 1 to 3, 1895. They had not 

 been a success pecuniarily, notwithstanding the large 

 entry for several seasons, and after this venture it was 

 decided to abandon them. At this meeting one hundred 

 horses started in the ten events which, under the old ten 

 per cent, of entry plan, would have paid the purses, but 

 which fell a trifle short under the new plan, five per cent, 

 to enter and five per cent, additional from the winner of 

 each division of the purse. The winners for the week 



