BREEDING THE TROTTER 



ent to his friends and to none more so than the 

 great horseman himself that he too must soon 

 join his colleagues in the invisible land, and herein, 

 perhaps, more than anything else, lies the secret of 

 ' The Passing of Village Farm.'* 



" And what a farm it has been! What history 

 it has made! How vastly different the records 

 of the turf would read had Village Farm never 

 had an existence! The list of men who have 

 mixed brains with the founding of a stock farm 

 and have carried the enterprise to successful con- 

 summation, at least in the degree, as has Mr. 

 Hamlin, is not large. Few men are entitled to 

 start in his class. His judgment in selecting and 

 handling Mambrino King and Chimes has been 

 vindicated by their achievements. . . . 



" In the spring of 1903 the writer bade adieu 

 to the dear ones of his Western home, climbed into 

 a box car with our three-year-old filly, whose 

 blood lines read like a poem and whose ancestors 

 have distinguished themselves in the stud and 

 on the track, and sped away to Village Farm. 

 After the varied experiences incident to travel 

 by freight we reached East Aurora, N. Y. We 

 went to the depot 'phone and called up Village 

 Farm, from which came the courteous reply, ' We 

 will send for you and your mare immediately.' 

 In due time came a man on horseback for the idol 

 of our heart and the foundation of our dreams 

 dreams of a colt, a sale at a long price, and a trip 

 to the Holy Land. Just behind him rode another 



*Mr. Hamlin died February 20, 1905, scarcely three weeks after the 

 Village Farm dispersal sale. 



47 



