STRANGER. 251 



next year his first start was again at Ravenna. His com- 

 petitors were Rattling Jack, Butcher Boy and several 

 others, but Stranger went off and distanced the whole 

 batch in the first heat, the time being about 2 122. The 

 next week, at Burton, O., Stranger met Gray Eagle and 

 Union Jack, both celebrated horses in their day, and dis- 

 tanced them in the second heat in 2:18, pacing the last 

 turn of the track in 1 105. The track was, however, some 

 two rods short of a half-mile. In all the foregoing races 

 Stranger was driven by Hatch, although the horse was 

 not during the latter part of the time his property. When 

 he was seven years old he started with a new driver 

 (Hatch being absent from home) at Cleveland, threw a 

 shoe in the first heat, and, there being no blacksmith pres- 

 ent, he was drawn. The third day afterwards, however, 

 he started again against nearly the same field, defeating 

 them in a hollow manner in about seven seconds faster 

 time than was made in the first race, and pacing close to 

 2:20. 



Hatch then roaded him from Cleveland to Adrian, 

 Mich., to go a match against a Coldwater pacer. That 

 was in 1861. The match was the result of a bitter horse 

 rivalry between Adrian and Coldwater. The backer of 

 Stranger wanting to "see what sort of a horse he was 

 betting on," prevailed on Hatch to show him "in private" 

 a trial. The opposition, however, got wind of it, had a 

 hidden representative there, and when Stranger stepped 

 off the trial in 2:18 the Coldwater contingent threw up 

 their hands and paid forfeit. The match was abandoned, 

 and Hatch started over the road on his return trip wiser, 

 but the amount of his expenses poorer. 



Pocahontas had several years prior made her fast rec- 

 ord and was open to "pace anything that wore hair for 



