TROTTING HORSES. 83 
fered from a “game” leg, and yet he has never 
flinched or faltered. Considering his half-thorough- 
bred origin, he is a little phlegmatic ; it takes severe 
work to “warm him up,” and he is apt to lose the 
first heat or two ina race. “Palo Alto,” writes Mr. 
Marvin,, “requires constant and vigorous driving, but 
there is a point beyond which it is dangerous to go.” 
Sunol, his half-sister, has not yet been tested in a long 
race, but she has shown an extraordinary capacity 
of sustaining speed for a mile. Of all the famous 
trotters Sunol appears to have the least pleasant 
disposition; she is too intelligent to be positively 
vicious, but she is irritable, and perhaps a little 
spiteful. It is said that she has an especial dislike 
for her trainer and driver, Mr. Marvin, and that 
she shows this feeling unmistakably whenever he 
comes near her. Nevertheless, the two seem to un- 
derstand each other perfectly. “Sunol’s redeeming 
feature,” says a California writer, “is her affection 
for her groom.” 4 
Another half-brother of Sunol, the young Arion,? is 
commonly regarded as the greatest trotter yet pro- 
duced. Arion is a small bay horse, not particularly 
beautiful or striking in appearance, except in one re- 
spect. His hind legs, and especially the hocks, are 
enormously large and muscular. To this peculiarity, 
no doubt, he owes his extreme speed. His disposi- 
tion is superlatively good, and he is said to be full of 
+ Sunol is by Electioneer. Her dam was by General Benton. 
Sunol’s grandam was Waxy, a thoroughbred daughter of Lexing- 
ton, just mentioned. 
2 By Electioneer. His dam is Manette, by Nutwood. Arion’s 
two-year-old record, as already stated, is 2.10. 5 
