Home Stretch

Johnny Hardwick (Douglas MacLean) is the owner of the fastest horse in the next race. Although it's almost guaranteed that he will win big, Hardwick ruins his chance by saving a little girl who has run out onto the track. The child's father shows his gratitude later on when he offers Hardwick a job as a clerk in his hotel -- Hardwick has been forced to flee after a fight in a roadhouse. Hardwick is also forced to leave that job, eventually taking a position as a handyman, where he meets Margaret Warren (Beatrice Burnham), who is presiding over the local post office. A horse race at the county fair gives Hardwick an opportunity to stage a comeback. The requisite villain has entered a ringer, so Hardwick brings in his own horse to defeat him. Motion Picture News called actor Douglas MacLean "one of the most popular polite comedians of the screen," meaning that he did not do slapstick.