Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1895-05-31
Published by request.

IL ID Il SlSS HlllIdilt lat Ii1S'@ Iii~
most successful re1nsmen on the
trotting turf are those who make
the least use of the whip i'll train
ing and driving their horses.
Edward Geers, the man who
drives Robert j., 2:olH; Hal
Pointer, 2:o4 Il; Fantasy 400 and
all the other fast trotters and
PAGERS owned by c. J. Ha1nlin, of
Buffalo, seldom resorts to the
whip, even when driving the
tightest kind of a finish. No
matter how desperate the contest
may be, he sits as still as statue,
steadics his horse, and relies all
most wholly upon rein and voice
to rouse the animal to his best
effort. Once in a long time,
Geers will tap a horse sharply Ill
the last few strides of mile, but
nobody ever saw him strike a
horse hard enough to punish
him, either i'll a race or i'll his
work. He seems to possess a
knack of getting the last ounce
out of the trottcr without it. His
horses uniformly finish more
pamclv and resolutely than those
driven by any other man OH the
turf. "A Gecrs' finish" is a stock
expression among the trotting
fraternity, and every circuit fol-
lower uses it when he wishes to
convey the idea Of q regular
grandstand rush III the home
stretch
Budd Doble, who drove Dexter,
2:17I; Goldsmith Maid, PA and
Nancy Hanks, 2:o4, to their
champion records, is another
famous driver who uses the
whip only on rare occasions.
Like Geers, he is one of those
master reinsmen whose talent is
away above the crude standard
of the man who relies OH force
and punishment to get his horse
to the front. One of the most
brilliant drives that Doble ever
made was at the Rochester Grand
Circuit meeting Of 1891 with the
shortbred Missouri horse McDoel.
He had won two heats, forced
out III fast time by the Canadian
horse Alvin. while his most
dangerous competitor, ROsaline
Wilkes, took matters easy wait
ing for the third round to make
her play for the overthrow of the
favorite. In the third heat Nc
Doel and Rosaline turned into
the hOmestretch on almost even
terms, but the latter, fresh
mare and a came one, had all
the advantage over the yellow
Missourian, who was both soft
hearted and III distress and every
turfman who had followed the
two free for all trotters down the
line expected to see the Wilkes
mare win handily at the wire
DRIVING AS a FINE ART.
MCDoel began to falter and
swerve before he reached the
distance post, 100 yards up the
stretch, but Dobel reused him
with such wonderful skill that
he hung on i'll spite of himself.
When it came to the last fifty
yards the driver of Rosaline
Wilkes was whipping with all
his might, while Doble, lifting
at every stride the exhausted
horse that he had OH his hands,
never used the whip at all, rely
ing as it seemed on some occult
power more potent than punish
mcnt to rally the tired McDoel.
After the horses had crossed the
line, nose and nose, III a dead
and the tension was relaxed.
Doble's trotter reeled and Wob-
bled and came to a standstill
within thirty yards of the wire,
while Turner's mare went OH
strong. straight and strue, as if
she were good for another mile.
The two styles of driving were
never better illustrated than in
this heat. Doble did not win, but
the storm of applause which fol-
lowed the finish was all for him
and his wizard-like work with
McDoel.
In his work OH draining the
Trotting Horse Charles Marvin
cautions young reinsmen to use
the whip sparingly with sluggish
horses, and with high-mettled
ones not at all Marvin came into
prominence twenty years ago as
the backWoodsman who convert
ed Smuggler from a PAGER to a
trotter, and at the latter gait drove
the blaze-faced stallion to victory
over Goldsmith Maid, the queen
of the turf. Other trainers are
probably superior to Marvin as
race-drivers, but in the field of
developing speed in colts the
man in gray is in class by him
self. While he was in the EN-
ploy of Governor Stanford at