24 RACEALONG 



at Charter Oak Park. They were disappointed when 

 it was announced that Rarus would not start as he 

 had been sold that morning for $33,000. 



The Charter Oak Park management met the breach 

 of contract by expelling the horse and his former 

 owner. The following day it was learned that Rarus 

 was purchased for Robert Bonner, who after learning 

 the printing trade in the office of the Hartford Cour- 

 ant went to New York where he amassed a fortune 

 publishing the New York Ledger. When Mr. Bon- 

 ner's health was impaired by constant work his doc- 

 tor advised him to purchase a pair of horses. 



As Mr. Bonner drove over the New York roads he 

 saw Commodore Vanderbilt and others brush by with 

 their fast trotters. This prompted him to change the 

 steady going members of his stable for trotters and 

 it was not long before he led the road drivers with 

 the pair Lady Palmer and Flatbush Maid which in 

 1862 trotted two miles to wagon in 5:011/2- They 

 were followed by single hitches, the fastest being 

 Peerless and the Auburn Horse. In 1867 when Dex- 

 ter reduced the world's record for trotters to 2:1714 

 he also became a member of the Bonner stable. 



As Robert Bonner could not purchase Goldsmith 

 Maid from Henry N. Smith he waited until Rarus 

 reduced her world's record from 2:14 to 2:131/4, only 

 to have him expelled. Later on the horse was rein- 

 stated as Mr. Bonner did not race his horses. Rarus 

 proved a disappointment as a road horse although 

 he showed faster than his record over the three-quar- 

 ter mile track at Bonner Farm at Tarrytown, N. Y. 



