— 449 — 



heat ill 2.25}, and has never known defeat. She started and won in six 

 other races as a three-year-old, retiring with a record of 2.24'.. Her 

 four-year-old career involves six races, six victories, and a race record 

 in the third heat of 2.13?. In 1891 she was in Budd Doble's hands, 

 and won three races, that with Allerton at Independence being the 

 fiistest race of heats on record. She defeated that formidable and 

 almost invincible race-horse in 2.12, 21H, and 2.12, and later reduced 

 her record at Richmond, Ind., to 2.09. 



In the season of 1892 she made many successful fights against time, 

 her greatest triumph being at Terre Haute in August, where she low- 

 ered the trotting record to 2.04. She is owned by J. Malcolm Forbes, 

 of Boston, who also owns the champion three-year-old stallion Arion, 

 2.10J. 



Martha Wilkes, 2.08, the next of the great mares of 1892, is also 

 owned by a Bostonian, Mr. E. D. Wiggin. She is a bay mare by 

 Alcyone, 2.27, out of Ella by Clark Chief, her dam Molly Robinson, 

 by Pilot Walker, and was bred by Mrs. Carrie Marders, of Pine Grove, 

 Ky. Martha Wilkes is trained and driven by Budd Doble. She 

 took a record in 1891 of 2.181, and has had an almost uninterruptedly 

 successful career in 1892. 



After racing with the greatest brilliancy, she began her trials against 

 time for the championship record, and these efforts culminated in a 

 record of 2.08. Martha Wilkes has gone a half mile close to a two- 

 minute gait, and if she reappears on the turf in 1893 it would not 

 surprise good judges to see her trot in 2.04 or better. 



Among the most remarkable trotters, not of this year, but of all 

 time, must be accounted Belle Vara, whose race- record of 1892 equals 

 the record of Maud S., which was the champion mark for six years. 

 With the exception of Martha Wilkes' heat in 2.08, Belle Vara's mark 

 is the fastest ever made in a race, and with all respect to Martha 

 Wilkes we think Belle Vara's mile the most remarkable because it was 

 won in a fighting heat, in contention with a fast field, whereas Martha 

 was merely chased by a competitor that could not trouble her, coming 

 the half-way post in 1.02f. 



Belle Vara is a bay mare, foaled in 1887, by Vatican, 2.29 t (son of 

 Belmont, out of Vara, granddam of Kremlin, 2.071, by Hambletonian), 

 dam Nell, by Estell Eric, son of Ericsson, the sire of the dam of 

 Moquette, 2.10. She was bred by B. H. Neale, of Lexington, and was 



