362 LIFE WITH THE TEOTTEES. 



Mm for a long campaign, as before yon get to the end of it, 

 yon will not only have to pay his expenses, but his entrance 

 money too. 



In the Cleveland race I made two mistakes with Wilson, 

 and one of them I consider a very serious one and am sure 

 that it cost him his chances of beating a first-class horse, 

 which I have no doubt that he would have done had he 

 been fortunate enough to have been managed differently. 

 At this time the best mile Wilson had ever gone was 2:20, 

 either in his races or work, and as I found out afterward, 

 he had been given a very short preparation and a very 

 little work of any kind. I supposed that he had plenty of 

 work, and as he showed me unlimited speed before the race, 

 advised Mr. Simmons to back him and we would try to win. 

 This was the first mistake, inasmuch as we were wrong as ^ 

 to the condition of the horse. A second mistake was that 

 we underrated Director. Johnny Goldsmith brought him 

 from California in the spring and trotted him a number of 

 races, had won some of them and given the horse a record of 

 about 2:20. That rate of speed was supposed by most 

 people to be his limit. The Cleveland race ' was a great 

 struggle of six heats between these two. Director and 

 Wilson, each getting two heats apiece and making a 

 dead heat, and Director winning the deciding heat. 

 Wilson that day made his record of 2:16J, which is 

 his best. Director also made his best record, 2:17, in the 

 same race. The public showered their money into the pool- 

 box and were pleased to think they had seen a grand bat- 

 tle, and Wilson being a game and ambitious horse and out 

 of condition from being short of work was ruined, as his 

 career after that was short. He never went anything like 

 as good a race again ; he struck his hind leg in this race and 

 was always more or less troubled by it and this was his last 

 year on the turf although a young horse. 



If Wilson had received a long and careful preparation, 

 such as Goldsmith had given Director, I am sure that he 

 would have won the race and not only that race, but a good 



