' EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 75 



usual. As we neared the stand Sleepy Joe was out-trotting 

 me a little, he had got his nose to my saddle-girt. The big 

 horse when I called on him did not respond as i thought he 

 ought to, and I hit him a hard blow on the shoulder with the 

 whip, which made him mad. He broke and jumped sideways, 

 nearly running me into the fence. Sleepy Joe won the heat 

 in 2:23. Then the boys said, " It is all up. Sleepy Joe will 

 win it." My friend J. J. Bowen and others came running to 

 me to know what to do, as they had money on King, and 

 said, " Shall we get our money off or let it stand ? '' I says, " I 

 have about $400 on the King and I shall let it be where it is, 

 as I know how I lost that heat ; it was I that was to blame 

 and not the horse." Billy Campbell, the owner of Sleepy Joe, 

 put on about $1,600 on his horse before we started for the 

 fifth heat, as he thought they could not lose it, and in fact 

 every one thought, as they had so often before, that the big 

 horse had got done. I, knowing the horse, thought dif- 

 ferent. The fourth heat proved, as I have told you before, 

 that he would not bear a hard blow with the whip, and any 

 horse with his temperament will not. When we came out for 

 the fifth heat I prepared myself and the horse, that is, I was 

 determined with him, sharpened him up before going up for 

 the word, and when we scored up and got off I went around 

 Sleepy Joe like a cooper around a barrel. I took the pole at 

 the first turn, then took my horse right back and let Joe come 

 up on the outside of me ; then went out into the middle of 

 the track, as the track near the pole was badly cut up as the 

 Madam and Mertie Peek combination had run a five-mile 

 race between heats. I staid there the entire mile. Joe 

 and the King went like a double team. I was satisfied that I 

 could out-trot him at any time, but did not try to go away 

 from him, just simply kept my horse reined up and ready for 

 a brush at a breath's warning, and we did not either of us 

 seem to be in much of a hurry until we got up near where the 

 money was. We went in that way until well inside of the 

 draw gates — neck and neck. Then we both made the drive. 



