THE OLD PLAN THE BEST. 287 



extending over a period of fifty years, and has been found 

 to be about the fairest test of speed and endurance. What 

 has been the result? We have to-day trotters that can 

 go at speed many miles without injury. They are useful 

 off the track, able, enduring, every ready to respond when 

 called upon, — the noblest animal on earth. 



Could as much have been said if our breeders had 

 been straining purely for speed at short distances? Not 

 at all. I can mention certain breeds of trotters that can 

 go at a wonderful flight of speed for one or two heats. 

 They are good for nothing else. Yet in the two and 

 three heat plan, such horses would win all the money 

 over the game breeds that can go heat after heat long 

 after these flighty ones have shot their bolt. 



I am also opposed to sending yearlings and two-year- 

 olds out for fast records. Even three-year-olds are too 

 young to be raced severely, in my opinion. They seldom 

 amount to anything further. Hardly one per cent, of 

 them ever train on. I can at present recall but one case 

 where a youngster has trained on and amounted to some- 

 thing, and that is Tommy Britton. I remember very well 

 when it was considered almost a sin to call on a trotter 

 for full speed at even four years old, and a horse was 

 only considered matured sufficiently for the severe knocks 

 of the race track at eight years. Look back at the bruis- 

 ing campaigns which such famous ones as Lady Suffolk 

 and others of her kind were able to stand. That sort 

 stood the stiffest kind of campaigning year after year 

 without wearing out. We have them to-day, but they 

 are pushed to the limit too early and do not wear as long. 



The only argument in favor of the two-in-three heat 

 system is that it would be easier on the horses, and there 

 is not so much in it at that. In regard to attracting larger 



