56 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
cestor of inferior quality. There is an example of 
this in the family of Maud 8. Harold, her sire, is 
also the sire of thirty other trotters, whose record is 
2.30 or better. Harold has a brother called Lakeland 
Abdallah, far superior to himself in size, in beauty, 
and in apparent power, and yet as a sire of trotters 
Lakeland Abdallah has been an utter failure. He 
has but a single representative in the 2.30 list. Of 
course his opportunities have been less than those of 
Harold, but still they have been considerable. 
However, by a process of selection, these discrepan- 
cies are diminishing. One by one, those branches of 
a trotting family in which speed has not been shown 
are dropped; only successful sons of successful sires 
and grandsires are looked to for the transmission 
of speed. The lines are drawn in, comparatively 
few strains are cultivated, and thus a thoroughbred 
trotter tends to be evolved. It is probable that in 
the near future the breeder will be able to predict 
of a given animal, This horse will trot in 2.20; and 
doubtless fifty or one hundred years hence a much 
higher rate of speed will be insured by certain lines 
of breeding. 
It is commonly believed that horses, as a rule, take 
their form and gait from their sire, and their dis- 
position and nervous system from the dam; and there 
are many facts which appear to support this theory. 
Certain horses, conspicuous among whom is Mam- 
brino Patchen, have had their reputation made chiefly 
by their daughters, and for this reason they are called 
“Great Brood Mare sires.” Pilot Jr. is another 
noted member of this class. On the other hand, 
Rysdyck’s Hambletonian, and many other famous 
