FIRST HEAT FOR MAUD. 79 



follow on foot. After a long wait the spectators saw 

 Maud coming down the road alone. Her rider went 

 over the course and claimed the heat and race. The 

 judges, who were standing on the tail end of a wagon, 

 heard what was said, but remained silent until the 

 starter and Oiney appeared. I could see Oiney was 

 wild with rage and the starter was not much better. 

 Then when Terry trotted up on Conquering Billy it 

 was plain to me that he had fallen, as he was covered 

 with dirt. 



Oiney claimed the race on a foul. He said that 

 Maud's rider had forced her against the gray and 

 bumped him into the ditch. The starter said that, in 

 his opinion, Maud's rider had accidentally crowded 

 Conquering Billy just as he tapped the drum for them 

 to be off. The latter swerved on to the grass at the 

 side of a shallow ditch which ran parallel with the 

 road. It gave way under him and caused him to 

 stumble and finally fall in the mud. As a recall flag 

 had not reached that section of country, Maud's rider 

 galloped over the course as stated. The judges, after 

 considerable deliberation, gave Maud the heat and 

 let it go at that. As for distancing Conquering 

 Billy — well, that was not thought of. 



When the horses came out for the second heat it 

 looked as if the whole affair would break up in a 

 fight. Oiney was up on Conquering Billy,' and after 

 breezing him up and down the road a couple of times, 

 "to get his pipes open," as a bystander remarked, he 

 told the judges that he would ride. "The lad is well 

 enough," he said, "when they play fair, but I will not 

 have him hurted." 



