HENRY c. Mcdowell and ashland 



daughter of George Wilkes, was a famous horse- 

 show winner when owned by Mr. Alley A. Bonner, 

 and he trotted to a record of 2.17. King Rene sired 

 speed as well as the sires and dams of speed. Dic- 

 tator, the renowned brother of Dexter, died at Ash- 

 land May 25, 1893, in the thirty-first year of his age, 

 and his last foal was a bay filly out of Medium's 

 Last by Happy Medium. It was this combination 

 of blood which gave us Nancy Hanks, 2.04. A 

 sample brood mare at Ashland was Ethelwyn by Har- 

 old, dam Kathleen by Pilot Jr., second dam Little 

 Miss, thoroughbred daughter of imp. Sovereign, and 

 on to the nineteenth dam, the Layton Barb mare. 

 She was bred season after season to Dictator, and her 

 first foal Orator (1886) trotted to a record of 2.24, 

 and is a sire of speed. Impetuous (1892) sister 

 of Orator, trotted to a record of 2.13, and Tintoret 

 (1893), another sister, trotted to a record of 2.24I. 

 Extasy, 2.11^ at the trot, and 2.io4 at the pace; 

 Ethel's Pride, 2.o6f, winner of the 1905 Transyl- 

 vania; Immaculate, 2.28f, and Ecstatic, 2.oif at 

 the pace, are out of Ethelwyn. Major McDowell 

 was a strong advocate of trotting cross on top of 

 trotting cross, but he wanted a thoroughbred founda- 

 tion for speed-sustaining purposes. The early theory 

 of evolving the trotter from the runner was somewhat 

 vague, and may be compared to Romaine's opinion 

 of adaptation: "The wing of the bird is an adap- 

 tive structure and cannot possibly have ever appeared 

 suddenly as a merely specific character; it must have 



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