MARCUS DALY AND BITTER ROOT FARM 



one closely or remotely related. In doing this you 

 will avoid the charge of introducing a violent dis- 

 turbing factor in the shape of alien blood. As the 

 fountain head of our greatest trotting family, Ham- 

 bletonian, was a thoroughbred, it cannot be truly 

 said that the engrafting of more thoroughbred 

 strains upon this structure is an alien step in the di- 

 rection of dangerous antagonisms. The thorough- 

 bred blood certainly has done away with the old 

 crooked or sickle-shaped hind leg, which is radically 

 opposed to extreme flights of speed. The wide nos- 

 tril of the thoroughbred when engrafted upon the 

 harness horse adds to the freedom of respiration 

 and thus increases vital powers. The spine, enlarged 

 and strengthened by ages of exertion under the sad- 

 dle, is indicative of a large spinal cord, which 

 greatly favors the distribution of nervous energy. 

 The introduction of this quality of the thorough- 

 bred will hardly strengthen to a permanent degree 

 a tendency to reversion in the trotting structure. 



Fanny Witherspoon, bred to Prodigal, 2.16 (son 

 of Pancoast and Beatrice), produced Practical, a 

 bay filly, who trotted to a three-year-old record of 

 2.19^, and Wilderness, a bay colt who trotted to a rec- 

 ord of 2.i8J. This is a good record for a mare that 

 was severely campaigned, and that, according to 

 some of the critics, was offbred. 



Rosy Morn was another great mare in the Daly 

 collection. Her sire, Alcantara, trotted in a race to 

 a four-year-old record of 2.23, and was by George 



251 



