THE GENTLEMEN'S DRIVING CLUB. 133 



were Yiotta, Avana, Piletta, Ouida, J. B. S., Sanjak, 

 Guinette, Wanda, Jim Corbett and Bourbon Wilkes, Jr., 

 and that the races were well contested and the perform- 

 ances high-class was evidenced by the thirty-eight heats 

 recorded in the judges' book and the average time of 

 2:16^ for the twenty-five heats trotted, and 2:1314 f° r 

 the thirteen heats paced, making the average for the 

 meeting a fraction under 2 :iS 3 A- During the week Miss 

 Rita and Josie B. made a pacing record of 2 113^ to pole, 

 and the two-year-old colt Ananias, by Patron, 2:1434, 

 out of Annie W., 2 :20, paced an exhibition mile in 

 2 :i424- 



For a number of years a few horse owners in Cleve- 

 land were anxious to organize a driving club and hold 

 regular matinees over the mile track. The plan had been 

 tried at Buffalo and was a success until those who took 

 an active interest in the work drifted from matinee rac- 

 ing into the professional field, while a club at St. Louis 

 had for time out of mind raced regularly for the amuse- 

 ment of its members. The Gentlemen's Driving Club of 

 New York had also from time to time offered cups for 

 members' races, but had never entered what could be 

 termed the matinee field, where a gentleman is willing to 

 strip the fastest trotter in the land and race him to wagon 

 for a "bit of blue ribbon." Whenever the subject was 

 broached to Colonel Edwards he objected, and with cause, 

 as he knew that the steel tires of the old-style wagon 

 would soon cut through the skin of clay that covers the 

 sandbed on which the Cleveland track is built. It ran on 

 in this way, from year to year, the enthusiasts fanning the 

 flame of their desire by a few skirmishes late in the fall, 

 before the track was cut up for the winter. With 1895 

 came the desire to do something in this direction. My 



