WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT SELLS MAUD S. 



H. Vanderbllt has just paid to Mr. Robert Bonner. 

 Maud S., as all intelligent horsemen know, has the 

 fastest record of any trotting horse in the world. 

 She is the only animal that has trotted a mile in less 

 than 2.IO — her record being 2.09I — a figure that 

 was deemed impossible for a trotting horse to reach 

 a few years ago. Mr. Vanderbilt was lately offered 

 $100,000 for her, but he declined it, preferring to 

 sell the mare for less than half of that sum to Mr. 

 Bonner, who he knew would not trot her in public 

 races. Last Friday he sent a friend expressly from 

 Saratoga to Inform Mr. Bonner of these facts, and 

 on Saturday Mr. Bonner sent his brother David up 

 to Saratoga to confer with Mr. Vanderbilt. The 

 result was that Mr. Bonner purchased the mare on 

 Monday evening. The price paid is $40,000. Of 

 the seven great trotters who in succession have broken 

 the record, to wit: Flora Temple, Dexter, Gold- 

 smith Maid, Rarus, St. Julien, Jay-eye-see, and 

 Maud S., Mr. Bonner now owns three — Dexter, 

 Rarus, and Maud S. What a trio! 



"Mr. Bonner was asked: * Suppose Jay-eye-see 

 should beat Maud S.'s record, what would you do 

 then?' His reply was characteristic: 'Buy him, 

 too, if I could, or put Maud S. into training at some 

 good track like Charter Oak Park at Hartford and 

 give the public a free exhibition of speed.' " 



It was pretty generally known that my relations 

 with Mr. Bonner were close, but no one supposed 

 that the above quoted article was written by his own 

 hand. The numerous erasures In the manuscript 

 show that the words used were chosen with delibera- 

 tion. I was with Mr. Bonner when Maud S. was 



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