The 2 : lO Trotters 103 



eliminated as unfit. When we go back four 

 generations and find that the only animals 

 which survived the weeding process came 

 from sires averaging nearly sixteen years of 

 age, we cannot but realize that the age of the 

 sire has a bearing upon the quality of the 

 offspring. As age relates only to work, there 

 is no mistaking what the figures mean. 

 When we look at the average ages of sires with 

 records through four generations, we see set 

 before us a means by which the offspring of 

 comparatively young sires can be saved from 

 elimination as unfit. When we stop to think 

 that the 109 sires at an average age of 9.29 

 years probably produced, at an average age 

 of 12 or 13 years, some 20,000 or 30,000 other 

 progeny which did not breed on to 2 : 10 

 quality, we are forced to believe that there is 

 something particular about the merits of 

 these horses at their earlier ages. When we 

 examine these 109 record horses in detail 

 and the dates when they left the track for 

 the stud, we find that the time which repre- 

 sents their highest dynamic development 



