RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



1886 Persica (3 yrs. old) 2.29 1887, lowered to 2.28f. 



1887 Puella 2.29 while in foal to Abbotsford. 



Broke down at three-quarter pole 

 and came home on three legs." 



This meager list plainly showed that the critic 

 had overshot the mark. 



In forwarding the list Mr. Brodhead said: 



" I am prompted to write you on a subject of great 

 importance to the trotting horse breeders, and ask you 

 to lend your help in preserving about the only priv- 

 ilege the breeder has left, the right to give his horses 

 public records for cups or premiums. There is a 

 disposition to circumscribe and cut off the breeder, 

 strictly speaking, from any possibility of showing the 

 speed of his horses, without he goes into some cir- 

 cuit and organizes a racing stable with all of its 

 expense, to say nothing of the trouble and annoyance 

 of the management. For the sake of getting records 

 in races, a breeder sends his trainer from home with 

 two or three animals, at the most important season 

 of the year, leaving the rest of his stock to be worked 

 by grooms at a time when they need the most ex- 

 perienced handling. When once in the circuit, in 

 order to secure the desired record, the trainer fre- 

 quently has not only to defeat his honest antagonists, 

 but pool-box combinations, more formidable ob- 

 stacles than horses or watches. On the other hand 

 a breeder can keep his head trainer at home all the 

 season attending to the breeding of mares, breaking 

 young animals, speeding the older, and in the fall 

 send him to the nearest association track, with such 

 of his horses as he wishes to give records. The 

 trainer is from home only a week, and, with light 

 expense, exhibits to the public such speed as he has. 



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