58 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
and grandsire.! And the facts seem to bear out this 
conclusion. It is extraordinary how many short 
trotting pedigrees end with “a mare of unknown 
breeding, but a great roadster.” Such, for example, 
was the dam of Mambrino Chief. Sometimes, in- 
deed, the maternal ancestor has possessed too much 
energy even for roadster purposes. Green Mountain 
Maid, the dam of Electioneer, was so high-strung that 
her owner abandoned the attempt to break her to 
harness. It is said of Lady Duval, a Glencoe mare, 
and the mother of two or three trotters, that “so 
extreme was her nervous ambition, unless she was 
permitted to rush ahead as soon as she reached the 
level stretches of the roadway, she would gallop 
sometimes for ten miles without cessation, and 
then, when she finally concluded to behave herself, 
she would settle down into a long, low, level stride 
that reminded one of the daisy-cutting movement of 
Lady Thorne.” Many other similar examples might 
be cited. 
“Notice in a field of brood mares,” remarks a keen 
observer,? “the one that herds, drives, and dominates 
all the others, and (if the remaining qualities of ac- 
tion, blood, and soundness are equal) you can always 
select her ladyship as the most successful brood mare 
in the paddock.” 
The truth seems to be that great trotters, like great 
men, inherit from their mothers what has aptly been 
termed the subtle ambition to succeed. 
1 Such is the opinion of the oldest horse breeders in the world, — 
the Arabs. With them a horse is always considered as belonging 
to the family of his dam, not to that of his sire. 
2 Mr. 8. T. Harris. 
