HAMBLETOXIAN'S SONS AND GRANDSONS. 291 



depth and proportionate in length and well ribbed, and the 

 coupling simply faultless. The quarters were marvelous, and 

 Mr. Marvin did not overstate the case when he said they were 

 the best he had ever seen on any stallion. They were the very 

 incarnation of driving power, and recalled Herbert Kittredge's 

 portrait of Hambletonian, except that there was nothing gross 

 or meaty about the buttocks of Electioneer. They were the per- 

 fection of muscular endowment and development. The arms 

 and gaskins, like the quarters, were full with muscle laid on 

 muscle, and the legs and feet were naturally excellent. In the 

 last years of his life he went over on his knees a bit, but that was 

 not strange considering his age, and the fact that he had seen 

 considerable track work. Indeed as long as he was at all vigor- 

 ous he was daily exercised on the track, and in view of his great 

 success in the stud, this fact has a special significance. 



As a three-year-old Electioneer was worked some on the Stony- 

 ford farm track to wagon, and Mr. Backman, whose word is good 

 enough authority for all who know him, stated that he showed a 

 quarter to wagon in thirty-nine seconds in that year. Little 

 else is known of his history at Stonyford. He was bred to a few, 

 very few mares, and was evidently not greatly esteemed by Mr. 

 Backman. In the autumn of 1876, ex-Governor Stanford, who 

 was just establishing his great breeding farm, Palo Alto, in the 

 Santa Clara Valley, California, visited Stonyford to purchase 

 stock principally brood mares. The governor was a great be- 

 liever in what I may call horse-physiognomy, or to be more exact, 

 he believed in the importance of the right psychical organization, 

 what we commonly call brain force, in horses, and was attracted 

 by the physical evidences thereof as indicated in the head. Elec- 

 tioneer pleased him in this regard, and in his general make-up, 

 and when the governor's purchase was completed Electioneer 

 went along, being put in at twelve thousand five hundred dollars. 

 He with the other Stonyford purchases arrived at Palo Alto 

 Christmas Eve, 1876. 



Though Electioneer never took a record, he was emphatically 

 a developed horse. I do not know whether he was ever driven a 

 full mile or not Mr. Marvin never drove him one but it has 

 been stated that one of the other trainers drove him a mile in 

 time somewhere between 2:20 and 2:26. However they may be, 

 Mr. Marvin in his book settles the question as to his having been 

 a fast, trained trotter. He says: 



