RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



referring to a note stating the fact." Time records 

 should not be made easier of accomplishment than 

 race records. As shields are barred from the regular 

 races, why not from contests against the watch ? The 

 Trotting Congress of 1906 put up the bar. 



Woodburn had never made much use of the 

 George Wilkes' blood, and on this account some peo- 

 ple found fault with the management. In January, 

 1889, Mr. Brodhead wrote me: 



" Put King Wilkes at the top of our advertisement 

 of trotting stallions. As he is a late addition, I want 

 to make the fact of our owning him conspicuous. 

 We gave $15,000 cash for him. During the past 

 year I have been greatly impressed with King Wilkes 

 as a stock horse, his fine disposition, pure gait, and 

 reliability as a foal getter. The horse has been much 

 abused in management, and will now have his first 

 good opportunity as a sire." 



King Wilkes was a brown horse foaled in 1876 by 

 George Wilkes out of Missie, the producing daugh- 

 ter of Brignoli by Mambrino Chief, and he ob- 

 tained his record of 2.22^ in a stubborn race of 

 divided heats. His son, Oliver K., was a circuit 

 sensation in 1880, and trotted in the fourth heat of 

 a race to a record of 2.16^. After the death of 

 Harold, sire of Maud S., and Belmont, sire of Nut- 

 wood, Lord Russell, brother of Maud S. and sire 

 of Kremlin, 2.07!, was the recognized head of the 

 trotting stallions at Woodburn. In the summer of 

 1895 Lord Russell got cast in his box and injured 



104 



