LIFE WITH THE TROTTEES. 103 



ever, and won in 2:24|. At the finish of this heat, for the 

 first time in his life, Rarus showed me signs of distress, 

 seeming tired in his legs and affected in his wind, and I 

 found that I had an even chance of getting beaten. Cozette 

 had two heats to her credit, and had been laid up a part of 

 the third and fourth, and, Avith her miles in 2:21^ staring me 

 in the face, I thought my chances were not very rosy. In 

 thinking the matter over, I concluded to let some one else 

 set the pace in the deciding mile, and try and win with my 

 horse at the finish, a plan that I -carried out, and, with the 

 help of a mistake that Cozette made, it landed me the win- 

 ner in 2:23f. The five heats constituted the best race of its 

 length ever trotted over a half-mile track. When the word 

 was given, Cozette took the lead, Rarus trailing her, and, 

 after we had gone three quarters of a mile in these positions, 

 there was about two lengths of daylight between us. In 

 going around the upper turn, Rarus closed the gap, so that, 

 when swung into the stretch, his head was at the mare' s 

 wheel. From there to the drawgate, it was as desperate a 

 race as one could wish to see. At that point Rarus com- 

 menced to tire, and the mare was out- trotting him. For the 

 first time in my life I drew the whip on Rarus. He responded 

 to the blow with one burst of speed, moving up to Cozette' s 

 wheel, when she made a slight break, and he beat her to the 

 wire, in 2:23|. That was the nearest,. with perhaps the ex- 

 ception of one other race, that he ever came to being beaten, 

 after he began to win with me. I have been explicit about 

 this race, in order to show my readers what condition does 

 for a horse in a race. Here was a trotter that, when in proper 

 fix, had shown me his ability to trot a mile in 2:14, and yet 

 he was very near being beaten by a field of horses, the best 

 of whom were at least five seconds his inferior; and at the 

 bestclip that Rarus could show, that means that they would 

 be more than a distance behind him at the finish of a mile. 

 If the public would make a little study of this, they would 

 be able to understand how horses often lose races, and men 

 their money, and then think tliey ]iave not had a fair drive, 



