Running Recollections and How to Train

CHAPTER XVIII. "THE GREATEST RACE I EVER RAN." SHORTLY after my return to this country from Jamaica, I re-started training, and some three weeks afterwards won a heat in a smallsprint handicapat Powderhall Grounds. I was very much out of condition, however, and was badly beaten in the second round. Mr. Joe Gibson had found a good novice, and it was decided that Jim Duckworth, the novice, and myself should go to Ormskirk to train for the New Year Handicap atPowderhall. Accordingly, we were all three soon settled atthe Talbot Hotel in the town of gingerbread, andhard at work. Little bylittle I began to improve, till, from conceding the novice 9 yards'start in 125, 1 coidd give him 10 in 120. We used to have pistol practice in the afternoon, running 50, 60, or 75 yards, as we felt inclined. At first I could only give him 2| in50, but before our preparation was over, I could give him 3| in that distance, in 60, and 5^ in 75. We ran a good many trials altogether, but two only are of note. One took place about three weeks before the handicap, and the other a week later. When the starts cameout, itwas found that the handicapper had docked the novice's start to the extent of twQ -yards-and-a-half. Even then, however, he appeared to have a good chance of winning. In thefirst important trial, the novice was placed on the 11* yards mark (his start in the handicap was 13), while I ran off my right mark, viz., 1^. I won the trial with a good half-yard to spare. We both ran well, and Mr. Gibson was delighted at the prospect of one or the other of us winning the handicap. F 2