a very hot contest, Hal Pointer won. Our next meet- 

 ing was at Nashville, where the track was hard, and 

 Direct won. We met a few days later at the then new 

 kite-shaped track at Columbia, Tenn., and the track 

 was so hard that I could not get Pointer to do himself 

 justice, and he again suffered defeat ; but to accom- 

 plish this feat, he compelled Direct to pace the three 

 fastest heats that had up to that time ever been made 

 in harness. 



The next season, when the horses were more nearly 

 on an equality, in a number of races Hal Pointer 

 clearly demonstrated his superiority as a race horse, 

 and defeated Direct every time they met. I cam- 

 paigned him during 1893, 1894 and 1895. In the free- 

 for-all pace at Philadelphia, in 1894, he was taken sick 

 during the race with an ailment that baffled all veter- 

 inary skill to diagnose. He had never been sick 

 before and showed no signs of illness until in the race. 

 Both he and Yolo Maid were taken sick in the same 

 heat with the same ailment, which gave rise to a sus- 

 picion of foul play on the part of some one. But 

 whatever it was, he never recovered from it. I win- 

 tered him with the rest of the Hamlin stable in Cali- 

 fornia during the winter of 1894 and 1895, and started 

 him in several races in 1895 ; but he still showed the 

 effects of that sickness ; and we gave up campaigning 

 him. After his race at Cleveland, in 1890, Mr. Steele 

 and myself sold him to Mr. Harry Hamlin of Village 

 Farm ; but he continued in my stable until I went to 

 Village Farm in 1892, and was after that in that stable 

 and was driven by me as long as he continued to race 

 through the Grand Circuit. I do not believe any 

 horse ever lived that possessed more racing sense, 

 gameness, and endurance than did this grand horse. 



64 



