118 TRAINING THE TROTTING HORSE. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE GREAT TRIO, WILDFLOWER, BONITA AND HINDA ROSE 



WILDFLOWER, THE TWO-YEAR-OLD CHAMPION OF HER 

 DAY BONITA A GREAT TWO-YEAR-OLD, AND CHAM- 

 PION FOUR-YEAR-OLD HINDA ROSE, CHAMPION YEAR- 

 LING AND CHAMPION THREE-YEAR-OLD OF HER TIME 



HER GREAT CAMPAIGN OF 1883 HOW SHE WAS SHOD 



AND BALANCED THE CAREER OF THE FASTEST YOUNG 



TROTTERS THAT HAD YET BEEN PRODUCED A STORY 



OF RECORD-BREAKING BY PALO ALTO COLTS HINDA 



rose's famous brother, ST. BEL HIS PURE GAIT, 



AND HIS RESOLUTE PERFORMANCES. 



The next two year-old sensation after Fred Crocker 

 was the bay filly Wildflower, by Electioneer, out of 

 Mayflower, by St. Clair. Mayflower was an old-time 

 California trotter herself, having a record of 2:30^, and 

 besides Wildflower, she produced the famous mare 

 Manzanita, who holds the four-^^ear-old record of the 

 world. Wildflower was foaled March 23, 1879. Al- 

 though I did not handle her in her babyhood or drive 

 her to her record, I studied her in all her work, and 

 became very thoroughly acquainted Avith her after- 

 ward. Wildflower had perhaps as much natural speed 

 as any animal bred at Palo Alto, and great as was her 

 two-year-old achievement, it was hardly made under 

 the most favorable auspices. Wildflower was not 

 judiciously worked in her two-year-old form — indeed, 



