RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



Doble, and I agreed to his terms. Mr. Bonner, who 

 was a close reader of the papers, saw the drift of 

 affairs, and one day asked me if I had full authority 

 from Senator Stanford to act. When I showed him 

 my authority, his only reply was : 



" Well, under the contract, the Senator owns the 

 racing qualities of the mare until she is delivered at 

 my stable, and I have nothing whatever to say. If 

 you bring these two four-year-olds together, the track 

 will not hold the people." 



Unfortunately Axtell trained off, and Mr. Conley 

 notified me that the proposed race or races were 

 cancelled. 



Soon after Sunol had arrived at Terre Haute in 

 the spring of 1890, Mr. Bonner invited me to go 

 out with him and look her over. At Buffalo Mr. C. 

 J. Hamlin joined us, and at Terre Haute we found 

 William Russell Allen, who had run up from St. 

 Louis. Our little party attracted considerable at- 

 tention, and the shoeing of Sunol, under the personal 

 direction of her owner, was watched with the keenest 

 interest. Sunol was nodding when Mr. Bonner first 

 saw her at Palo Alto, but he did not hesitate to 

 write a check for her, because he felt confident that 

 he could remove the cause of lameness. Doble was 

 present when Sunol was shod, and asked for sugges- 

 tions with regard to Axtell, but Mr. Bonner evaded 

 replying. It would have been poor policy, as he ex- 

 plained to me and Mr. Allen, to cut a stick to beat 



himself with. 



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