TOD SLOAN 



next race. Then came the Saturday Welter with a 

 field of twenty-two. Neither the weather nor the 

 mud could shake my confidence : we slopped along 

 and at the distance I felt I had them all whipped. 

 The mare I was riding, Martha IV. she was called, 

 seemed to like me and I got there. That black mass of 

 people set up a roar when I passed the post. Lord 

 William was delighted and I had to dodge the people 

 who wanted to pat me on the back. I rode Keenan 

 in the November Handicap but couldn't beat Asterie, 

 who was better class. Then followed the Final Plate 

 and I rode Bavelaw Castle, whom I had won on two 

 days before. I knew exactly what to do and made the 

 horse to put in his best, but I hadn't seen one or two 

 who were thought to be dangerous. You get how- 

 ever into a kind of feeling that you must win when 

 you have begun, and Bavelaw Castle had to do it. He 



did. 



Four wins and a second ! I didn't get a swollen 

 head that day ; that I can say, whatever happened 

 to me before or after. My only idea was to dress 

 quickly and to get into a cab, but it wasn't so easy. 

 It looked a bit dangerous in fact, for they were wait- 

 ing there in the hundreds and thousands either to 

 shake my hand or pat me on the back or to grab a 

 souvenir,, All the stories I had read as a kid about 

 those who used to wait just to touch John L. Sullivan 

 came back to ME ! Ed. Gaines and I went out to look 

 for the cab, but it was impossible to get at it. The 

 crowd was closing in. Gaines's face was as white as a 

 sheet : he thought we should be trampled on. At last 

 they got a dozen policemen who formed a square 

 round us. All the same I should have liked to shake 

 hands with a few of them. I should have risked 

 having all the breath pressed out of me and I was 



68 



