204 NOTED MAINE HORSES. 
light within the limits of the Pine Tree State appears the 
name of Hopeful. He isa gray gelding 15 hands high, 
foaled in 1866, on the farm of Eli Whitcomb, No. Dix- 
mont, Me., the property of B. D. Whitcomb of Boston; 
got by Godfrey’s Patchen, dam a gray mare bred by Gid- 
eon Fletcher of Buckfield, Me., got by the Bridgham 
Horse, 2d dam by Whalebone, son of Sherman, 3d dam by 
Winthrop Messenger. Aug. 25th, 1873, he made his first 
. appearance in public, in a race for horses which had never 
started for money, winning the first and second heats in. 
2.493 and 2.454, after which he was drawn. He ended 
_ the season, however, with a record of 2.25. Hopeful was 
afterwards sold to Dunn Walton of New York, and Aug. 
5th, 1875, at Poughkeepsie, he won in 2.228, 2.28, 2.28. 
Aug. 31st, at Charter Oak Park, Hartford, he won again 
_ in 2.184, 2.224, 2.19, 2.204, 2.23%, losing the second and 
third heats. The week following, Sept. 3d, at the same 
place, Hopeful beat American Girl in straight heats in 
2.174, 2.184, 2.183. In 1878 Hopeful was very successful. 
After trotting with indifferent success through the early 
part of the season, he entered the Grand Circuit at Cleve- 
land, in the free-for-all. YVhe following account of the 
race at Cleveland, we take from the Turf, Field & Farm: 
‘“‘The open-to all race was one of the most remarkable 
contests ever seen in the world. Hopeful did not have 
many friends for the reason that he had performed badly 
at Toledo, and then it was known that he is an uncertain 
horse. Mr. Richmond had insisted that Dan Mace should 
drive him, and the knowledge of this fact induced a few 
to back him at the rate of ten dollars against one hundred. 
The starters were Hopeful, Proteine, Cozette and Nettie. 
Proteine was all the rage. On coming to the wire for the 
third time the word was given. Hopeful got away level, 
and he led Great Eastern around the turn by a length. 
Proteine was fourth at the quarter, Cozette last and in the 
air. Along the backstretch, the daughter of Blackwood 
