244 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



and a specific instance of attainments are pertinent 

 and significant, as described by W. M. Neal of 

 San Francisco : 



"California trotters figure prominently from year 

 to year in the 'season championships' for all ages and 

 sexes, over all kinds of tracks, in all localities where 

 racing is conducted. Year after year the great fami- 

 lies founded in California furnish from their diverse 

 ramifications the leading contestants for the premier 

 honors of 'fastest performers/ or for the spoils of 

 battle to be wrung from the winning of rich stakes. 

 Of all the horse-producing states, only Kentucky 

 outranks California in prestige in the realm of the 

 trotter. To a thousand farms across the mountains 

 and deserts to the East, to the countries of the old 

 world where harness racing flourishes, to the breed- 

 ing centers of Australia and to the islands of the 

 Pacific where the Anglo-Saxon has carried with him 

 his favorite sports, California has given of her bounty 

 in speed-producing blood until today, when champion 

 upon champion appears, born without her confines, 

 perhaps, but owning blood allegiance to the great 

 houses of Electioneer, Guy Wilkes, Sidney, Director, 

 Steinway, McKinney, Dexter Prince and others of 

 an equally lasting though slightly less luster, the 

 debt of the world to California and her horses and 

 horsemen is incalculable. 



"It fell to the lot of the Golden State to achieve 

 her most startling success in the eyes of the whole 

 world in the way of speed production when, on Au- 

 gust 24, 1903, at Eeadville, Mass., the dainty Lou 



