BOOK. 149 



firm, and his back and loins powerful. For a horse of hla size, his thighs 

 ar immense. It is almost unnecessary to allude to his breeding. He can 

 be traced to imported Messenger on the sire's side, and to imported 

 Diomed ( the winner of the first English Derby ) on the dam's side. He 

 was first trained by Hiram Woodruff, and it is not a little singular that in 

 Mr. Bonner's stable, standing in adjoining stalls, are the two horses 

 (Dexter and Peerless) behind which Hiram Woodruff made the best 

 time he ever made in his life, driving the former in harness and the lat- 

 ter to wagon, in 2:23^. But Woodruff died before Dexter's speed was 

 fully developed, though he had a premonition that even the 2:18 1-5 

 which he had seen him make under the saddle on the Fashion Course 

 would in time be surpassed. He was right in this expectation, for 10,000 

 people saw Dexter trot a heat against Ethan Allen and his running mate 

 in 2:16, although by an unjust regulation, the horse was not allowed to 

 claim that record. It is not asserted, however, that he is entitled to the 

 record of 2 :16 as a winning record, but that it Is justly his due aa the time 

 record of a public performance. 



Budd Doble has stated that he drove him in 2:14tf in private, while in 

 a public race he drove him in 2 :17#, and a half mile in 1 :06. Good judges 

 believe that by far his greatest achievement was the day when Mr. Bonner 

 drove him on the Prospect Park Course, wagon and driver weighing 319# 

 pounds, in 2:21% a performance which, considering the weight carried 

 and the state of the track, was equal to 2:14. It is now four years since 

 Mr. Bouner gave his check for 33,000 for Dexter, and withdrew the horse 

 from the turf, and there is little doubt that Dexter's speed is greater now 

 than it was when he trotted In 2 :17&" in Buffalo in the hands of Budd 

 Doble. When Mr. Bonner purchased him it was gaid that he would be val- 

 ueless, as he could not be driven with safety on the road. But kindness 

 and good management produced their legitimate results, and Mr. Bonner 

 drives him regularly on the road and through Central Park. 



In the next stall stands the gray mare Peerless, a daughter of Ameri- 

 can Star and a Messenger mare. Like Dexter, she was bred in that nur- 

 sery for fast horses, Orange County, and like him also was educated by 

 Hiram Woodruff, who drove her in public a mile to wagon in 2:23^ a 

 performance which only Dexter has surpassed. Peerless has proved a 

 failure as a brood mare, but is a favorite roadster with Mr. Bonner, who- 

 often drives her double with the veteran Lantern, the two making a fine 

 and fast team. 



Lantern comes next, and it is only the curve of the back that shows his 

 age, for his eye is as bright and his legs as clean as on the day he trotted 



