THE ^VILKES FAMILY. 325 



beat her at any distance, and she would go on her 

 courage to the extreme limit of her ability. Her four- 

 year-old record was made in the third heat of a race, 

 and stands unbeaten. 



The Wilkes' are claimed to be the greatest of cam- 

 paigning families ; but a recent writer proved by tabu- 

 lating the records that while the 2:30 trotters, by 

 George AYilkes, won 3^ per cent, of their races, the 

 2:30 trotters, by Electioneer, w^on 43 per cent, of 

 theirs ; and against 2:24: and a fraction, as the average 

 record of the "Wilkes', he found 2:22 and a fraction to 

 be the average record of the Electioneers. These 

 racing statistics certainly look as though the Elec- 

 tioneers raced successfully. Another writer, some time 

 ago, ex])loded the exaggerated ideas that have been 

 afloat about the opportunities of Electioneer. It has 

 been said that ''hundreds" of his get were trained and 

 broken down at Palo Alto. The writer was given 

 access to the Palo Alto books, and his tables made 

 therefrom showed that at the close of 1888 the total 

 number of foals bred at Palo Alto, and got by Elec- 

 tioneer, was 235 ; that 139 were trained more or less ; 

 and that of these ninety -one, or over 65^ per cent, had, 

 under the watch, shown the ability to trot in 2:30 or 

 better. These stud statistics show with what uniformity 

 Electioneer gets speed, and what is better, early and 

 extreme speed— and they furnish ample basis for my 

 belief that he produces a larger percentage of animals 

 naturally gifted with the ability to trot in 2:30 or 

 better than any horse that ever lived. 



The owner of a great horse in Kentucky— over the 

 honored dust of both owner and horse the blue-o-rass 



