68 RACEALONG 



quently produce foals which are not satisfactory 

 when the turf test is appHed. FilHes from race mares 

 or their sisters make the best matrons while in the 

 matter of selecting stallions there is nothing to do 

 but go ahead and await results. ' 



John E. Madden said that the only rule is to 

 breed a good mare to a good horse and let nature 

 do the balance. Then as Barney Fralick says, if 

 you get them you get them or if you fail try again. 



In some families the daughters of speed producers 

 have bred on uniformly, the Nell family being the 

 most prominent. As for stallions it is a gamb'e. 



Many a man has walked into the paddocks on a 

 stock farm or the sale ring and selected clever per- 

 formers but few picked horses that made successful 

 sires. Success switches so rapidly from one family to 

 another or to different branches of the same family 

 that it is impossible to forecast it. In addition to this 

 a horse is well along in years before his rating is 

 assured. 



The trotting families as they exist today were 

 started in volume by blending the blood lines of the 

 sons of Hambletonian. Another strata was added by 

 doing the same thing with the sons of George Wilkes. 

 A number of them were leaders and if in their day 

 someone had said that Red Wilkes, Bourbon Wilkes, 

 Gambetta Wilkes, Onward or Simmons would fade 

 out he would have been laughed at. Still that is what 

 happened. Of the entire Wilkes family the only ones 

 that carried on were Alcyone, William L., Baron 

 Wilkes and Wilkes Boy. 



