— 442 — 



able challenger of champions of Time. The king of the turf of that 

 day was St. Julien, of a record of 2. Hi, and Maud S., after two un- 

 successful attempts, lowered that record to 2.101 at Chicago, September 

 20th, 1880. The following year she lowered the record to 2.10t, and 

 there it remained until August 1st, 1884, when the wonderful little black 

 gelding. Jay Eye See, trotted the Providence track in 2.10. But he 

 was kiug only a day, for the following afternoon Maud S. again proved 

 her supremacy by trotting the Cleveland track in 2.091. The owner- 

 ship of 30 famous a trotter brought its annoyances to Mr. Vanderbilt, 

 and as Mr. Bonner made overtures for her purchase, she became his 

 at 840,000. In November she further reduced her record to 2.09t, and 

 on July oOth of the following year, at Cleveland, she set the world's 

 trotting record at 2.081. It stood unequaled for over six years, until 

 another of Mr. Bonner's horses lowered it. 



One of the most sensational trotters of this age has been the Califor- 

 nia filly Sunol. This young mare was bred by Senator Leland Stan- 

 ford at his famous Palo Alto ranch, in the Santa Clara Valley, 

 California, and was foaled in 1886. Senator Stanford is an enthusiastic 

 lover of the trotting-horse, and he is more than that. He has not 

 followed beaten paths, either breeding or training, but has departed 

 boldly from conventional conceptions and old time methods, and has 

 eminently succeeded. On training, Senator Stanford's views are radical. 

 He inaugurated, and his former trainer, Charles Marvin, the most 

 skillful man of his profession, carried out and perfected what is now 

 known as the " Palo Alto " system of training trotters. Sunol is a 

 tall, stately bay mare, considerably taller at the quarter than at the 

 wither, and was a phenomenon from her first day's training. Her 

 besetting sin has been an irritable disposition, an extremely irritable 

 organization, and her early training was pursued under difficulties 

 which only a man of Marvin's unequalled skill and patience could 

 overcome. 



In 1881 another Palo Alto-bred mare, Wild Flower, had made a 

 two-year-old record of 2.21, and that had not since been approached, 

 but Senator Stanford's aim is to breed early speed, and when Sunol 

 promised so well as a two-year-old it was determined to lower the two- 

 year-old record if possible. In her first attempt against the record at 

 San Francisco she trotted in 2.20?, and a week later she covered the 

 mile without a falter in her gait in 2.18. As a three-year-old Sunol 



