1899 MEETING. 141 



a break going away, losing four lengths. Geers sailed out 

 in front to the half in 1 :o$y 2 and three-quarters in 1 138. 

 Ketcham made a drive for the heat and stepped Cresceus 

 the last half in 1 :03^4. He caught Britton when within 

 a few feet of the wire, made a break and Tommy Britton 

 was given the heat in 2 :09?4- The next two heats went 

 to Cresceus in 2 109^4, 2 iii^J, and Geers had stopped driv- 

 ing in the fifth heat when Cresceus made a double break 

 at the draw gate. Seeing a chance Geers roused his horse 

 with the whip ; he was too tired to break, and won in 

 2:11^4. The other winners that have not been named 

 were Mattie Patterson, Split Silk and Annie Lee. On the 

 last day of the meeting J. Curry also started Kentucky 

 Union to reduce the world's trotting record of 2 112^2 to 

 wagon and cut it to 2:10^4. A few minutes later N. W. 

 Hubinger appeared with Grace Hastings and started to 

 beat that figure. Going away rather slow for such a task 

 he passed the half in 1 :o6^4. At that point he was joined 

 by a runner, and like a bird on the wing, Grace Hastings 

 flew from there to the wire in 1 102^4, making the mile 

 in 2 :ogy2. 



When the bell rang for the Grand Circuit meeting at 

 Cleveland in 1899, there were new men at the helm. Both 

 Colonel William Edwards and George W. Short had 

 passed from the scenes that had known them so many 

 years. Their places were taken by H. M. Hanna and W. 

 G. Pollock, while H. K. Devereux had also become one of 

 the working forces of the Association. Twenty events 

 were programmed for the week, the pacers for the first 

 time being given the same number of races as the trotters. 

 Seventy-six heats were required to clear the card, the 

 average time for them being a fraction over 2:11. The 

 time for the series was, however, very irregular, on ac- 



