60 LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 



saw Rarus go a,i a rate of speed to make me think he might 

 be able to trot in 2:20. As he rounded into the stretch, he 

 was in third position, and, from there to the stand, the race 

 was as exciting as one could wish for. Earns closed inch 

 by inch ; he seemed to grow longer and bigger, and Molly 

 Morris shorter and smaller. It looked an uneven battle — 

 the pony, scarceb fourteen hands high, trotting and strug- 

 gling against a horse that stood over sixteen hands — and 

 when he overtook aer at the distance-stand, and beat her to 

 the wire by an eyelash only, in 2:24^, there was great cheer- 

 ing, and I think that the sympathy of a great many in the 

 :audience was with Molly Morris on account of her size and 

 ■her honest attempt to win. Rams won the next heat, but 

 not until he had had another determined battle, and went a 

 ^second faster than in the fourth mile. In the deciding heat 

 they had all had enough of it, and Rams won in 2:26^. In 

 this race he had gone from 2:28 to 2:23^, and Doty told me, 

 that night, at the hotel, that lie considered him, by long 

 odds, the fastest and best horse that he had ever driven. 

 That I'ather surprised me, as I had seen Doty have some 

 very good ones, and I felt that he had Rarus a little over- 

 rated on account of his victory. At Buffalo he met about 

 the same lot of horses the following week, but Molly Morris 

 turned the tables on him, and beat him in straight heats, in 

 3:22, 2:24|, and 2:24^, Carrie getting second position, and 

 Rarus third. Doty told me that night that he thought 

 the track being hard hurt Rarus, as he did not seem dis- 

 j)0sed to extend himself, and at no part of the race, except- 

 ing the finish of the last heat, did he show anything like 

 his Cleveland speed. From what I knew of Rarus after- 

 ward, 1 think that Mr. Doty gave the right solution of his 

 defeat. AVhile the first heat of this race might have been 

 faster than he could have gone, he had shown his ability 

 to beat 2:24, which was the time of the last heat. 



The following week, at Rochester, they had another royal 

 battle. Some of the heats of this race were trotted in the 

 mud, which accounts for the great variation in time. Rarus 



