ROCKINGHAM. 15 



placed the odd event to the credit of the Philadelphia 

 party. Budd Doble's riding in this race attracted the 

 attention of Hiram Woodruff, and later on when Faw- 

 cett and Trusell purchased Dexter he recommended 

 him as the trainer for the horse, which was the pride 

 of his last days and the fastest trotter he ever drew a 

 line over. 



"You all know the balance, and as Budd Doble is 

 now nicely started on the way to fame, I will skip four 

 years and appear with General Butler at Chicago. 

 This was in 1866, the year that Dexter and George M. 

 Patchen, Jr., were hippodromed from Long Island to 

 Milwaukee and back to Philadelphia. General Butler 

 was at the time under the management of William 

 McKeever, a New Yorker who had been brought up 

 in the butcher business, but who became enamored 

 with the gay going trotters and in due season ex- 

 changed the apron and cleaver for a driving cap and 

 whip. When Dexter and George M. Patchen, Jr., 

 were shipped west he went along with General Butler, 

 starting him at Syracuse, Buffalo and Cleveland, at all 

 of which places he was defeated by Dexter, the race at 

 Buffalo being a memorable one, as on that occasion 

 "white legs," as Dexter was called by his admirers, 

 trotted three miles in 2:21^2, 2:26, 2:18, the last heat 

 being a quarter of a second faster than his mile to 

 saddle against time at the Fashion Course the preced- 

 ing October, and a second faster than his second heat 

 in the race on the same course in July, when he de- 

 feated General Butler and Toronto Chief. 



"When Doble, Eoff and McKeever arrived at Chi- 

 cago in September they found that two races had been 

 arranged for Dexter, the first being with George M. 



