74 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
I shall speak hereafter of Goldsmith Maid’s remark- 
able intelligence in “scoring.” But perhaps the most 
interesting fact in her career is that she made her 
fastest time, 2.14, at the age of nineteen; and on her 
twenty-first birthday Budd Doble drove her a mile 
in 2.16. Goldsmith Maid continued on the track for 
nearly fifteen years, conquered all the fastest horses 
of her time, and trotted in all 332 heats under 2.30. 
She lasted so long partly because of her good breed- 
ing, and partly, it may be, because she was never 
trained or worked until she had become a mature 
horse. The fashion now isto make the trotter’s 
career begin while he is a colt, but although the prac- 
tice has not been tested thoroughly, it must be fraught 
with danger. If it ever should .become general, it 
is certain that many young horses would be over- 
worked and ruined every year, comparatively few 
drivers having the discretion and patience that are 
required for the safe “preparation” of acolt. There 
have been other horses who, like Goldsmith Maid, 
being well bred and beginning at a mature age, lasted 
a long time on the track. Dutchman, who trotted 
his first race at six years of age, was a sound and 
fast horse at eighteen. Topgallant, a grandson of the 
thoroughbred imported horse Messenger, and the first 
to make a record of, 2.40, is a still more extraordinary 
example. When twenty-four years old he trotted a 
very hard race of four three-mile heats against all 
the best horses of his day, winning one heat; and the 
week after he engaged in another race of three-mile 
heats, which he won. Old Topgallant was a great 
favorite of Hiram Woodruff, who as a boy took care 
of him, and as a young man trained, rode, and drove 
