HAMLIN AND SPEED DEVELOPMENT 



undeveloped dam, outranks, with less than half the 

 number of performers, George Wilkes. My mas- 

 querading friend, Mr. Wm. L. Simmons, tried to 

 mislead the uninformed on this point by crowding 

 pacing and saddle performances into the 2.20 list of 

 George Wilkes, but the trick did not blind any ordi- 

 nary student of the 2.30 table. Mr. Simmons is an 

 intelligent man, and I regret that he should have 

 stooped to such a quibble in a dignified discussion. 

 If the theories of some writers prevailed, George 

 Wilkes would receive a black mark for every pacer 

 sired by him. We are breeding for trotters, not 

 pacers. 



Wedgewood's fast performers were got before he 

 obtained his record of 2.19. General Tracy explains 

 his failure in New England on the ground that he 

 there met the average New England mare, which 

 falls far short of the Woodburn mare. Was it not 

 wasted vitality on the part of the stallion rather than 

 the absence of quality in the mare? There are many 

 good mares in New England, and Wedgewood, on 

 account of his fee and reputation, got the best of 

 these. 



Look at Wood's Hambletonian, an undeveloped 

 stallion. He spent his life in an out-of-the-way 

 Pennsylvania village, where his opportunities were 

 far below those of Wedgewood in New Eng- 

 land, and yet eighteen of his get trained to records 

 of 2.30 and better, the fastest being that of Nancy 

 Hackett, 2.20. Was this due to chance or to a fixed 

 law; of Nature ? The ancestors of Wood's Hamble- 

 tonian were virtually undeveloped like himself. The 

 habit of action was not intensified in them or him by 

 use. Alexander's Abdallah, sire of Wood's Ham- 

 bletonian, started in just two races and his record is 



