RACEALONG 377 



FIVE GREAT UNKNOWNS 



The inheritance of five of the most celebrated 

 mares in the Trotting Register is unknown. This 

 has come about not on account of them not having 

 a racing inheritance but because no one took the 

 trouble to establish their blood lines while those who 

 knew them were living. This remarkable group is 

 composed of Dolly Spanker, the dam of George 

 Wilkes, Katy Darling, the dam of Alexander's Ab- 

 dallah, Shanghai Mary, the grandam of Electioneer, 

 Daisy, the tap root of the Axworthy family, and 

 Bettie Wilson, the last link in the pedigree of Peter 

 the Great. 



As what is actually known about these five ma- 

 trons is scattered all over the lot I have assembled 

 all that is accessible at this time for the information 

 of those who are disposed to examine the sources to 

 which the past and present day champions trace. 

 Three of the five mares in this group were driven 

 on the road in New York when Broadway above 

 Madison Square was still known as the Blooming- 

 dale Road. They were Dolly Spanker, Daisy and 

 Katy Darling. Shanghai Mary was raced and won 

 on the western New York tracks at a time when a 

 2:30 trotter was almost a star and Bettie Wilson 

 was used under the saddle in Tennessee prior to the 

 war between the states. 



Dolly Spanker 



Harry Felter owned Dolly Spanker when she was 



