LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 405- 



ious, and another thing that added to my nervousness was. 

 the fact that the newspapers warned the public against bet- 

 ting oh Dexter. They said he had just changed hands, 

 going from the stable of the best driver in the country to 

 that of a young man who had had little experience, and that, 

 it was not reasonable to expect that he would be in his best 

 form. At that time Dexter' s record was 2:24^. My plan 

 of training, luckily for me, proved the proper one, and 

 when the day of the Suffolk Park race came Dexter was in 

 fine fettle, beating Patchen easily and trotting one of his. 

 heats in 2: 23 J, which was three-quarters of a second faster 

 than his previous best record. This put me in high feather 

 with the public, and, not unnaturally, I had more confi- 

 dence in myself, so that when we went to the Fashion track 

 to trot the saddle race against Butler and Toronto Chief I 

 had my wits about me and won rather easily. These two- 

 races at two ways of going seemed to satisfy Messrs. Trussell 

 & Fawcett, the owners of Dexter, that I was competent to 

 take charge of the horse and we then made a contract for 

 the balance of the season. 



Dexter was the most nervous horse I ever handled when, 

 he was in the stable or while being rigged up, and he was 

 not a pleasant horse to drive unless going at the top of his. 

 speed or nearly so. He was an irritable horse by nature, 

 peevish in disposition, and an annoying one to handle at all. 

 times except in his races. This was the only time, as a. 

 matter of fact, that I enjoyed driving Dexter, but a safer 

 horse or a more reliable one in a race I never sat behind. 

 There were only two places in a mile where he needed watch- 

 ing, and these were at the first and third turns. He was a 

 very resolute horse on the track, had a bold way of going, 

 and was so ambitious that in rounding the turns he was. 

 liable to overtrot himself and break. In those days trotters, 

 were trained to take hold of the bit pretty strongly, the idea, 

 being that they could not be controlled and balanced as well 

 by the driver under any other circumstances, although of 

 course since then that idea has been exploded and horses. 



