244 THE GOLDSMITHS. 



and that others had bred a number of horses which had 

 won honors not only on the Pacific Coast but also on 

 the Eastern tracks, but their greatest achievements 

 look dim when compared with what was done by the 

 Palo Alto trotters and those who strove to check their 

 tide of victory. At the time Leland Stanford pur- 

 chased Electioneer, William Corbett, a thrifty Cana- 

 dian who had amassed a fortune in the grocery busi- 

 ness in San Francisco, owned the stallions Irvington 

 and Arthurton, own brothers by Hambletonian out of 

 the American Star mare, Imogene, that afterwards 

 produced Leland, and was breeding in a small way at 

 San Mateo. 



Electioneer's first crop of foals in California was 

 dropped in 1878, the colt trotter, Fred Crocker, being 

 in the bunch. The Arthurton foals for that year also 

 contained Arab and Joe Arthurton. As for Irvington, 

 he was sold and exported to Australia where he sired 

 the dam of the pacer, Ribbonwood, 2 109, while his 

 owner having seen and heard of the triumphs of the 

 Dictator and George Wilkes trotters, started east to 

 purchase a representative of one of these families that 

 was well bred, had a record or could make one. After 

 making overtures to purchase Phallas he selected Guy 

 Wilkes, a bay horse foaled in 1879 by George Wilkes, 

 dam Lady Bunker by Mambrino Patchen, second dam 

 Lady Dunn, the Seely's American Star mare that also 

 produced Joe Bunker, 2:1934, the gray gelding which 

 defeated Director at New York and Romero at Albany 

 in 1883. Lady Dunn and Flora Gardiner were, so far 

 as I know, the only mares by Seely's American Star 

 that were bred to Mambrino horses. The last named 

 produced Guy 2:09^ and Fred Folger 2:2034, the 



