Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-14
THE FsoTTING WONDER.
LESLIE MACLEOD ON sUNoL AND THE
PALo ALTO FARM.
The Workings of Senator Stanford's Gel
ebrated Kindergarten-Marvi
Training.
IFrom the Kew YORK Tribune.


Stanford's trotting wonder, Sunol, and the
sale of the FLY to Robert Bonner for a
price that is supposed to be over $4,000,
puts the name of that precocious young
performer in every horseman's mouth, but
the many padded columns that have been
devoted to the Palo Alto phenomenon
have been written at long range. With a
view to gathering some rock-ribbed facts
about the mare, the writer asked Leslie E.
Macleod, the junior editor of WallacSs
Monthly, who spent last winter at Palo
Alto, and thereby became intimately ac-
quainted with the mare and her training,
for particulars.
81 was at Palo Alto" said Mr. Macleod,
"from the middle Of January to the LIST of
| April, and, of course, had extraordinary
opportunity for observation. Sunol is a
| difficult animal to describe, for the reason
| that she has an individuality and conform
alton her own. She is beautiful bay in
color and stands fifteen hands two inches
| high at the withers, while measured at
| the quarters she is full sixteen hands high
This conformation you will see at glance
! is very favorable to high speed-it is the
greyhound type, and necessarily gives
great length to the rear quarters and legs,
and hence great stride. Maud S. is of that
conformation and so is Electioneer, the
sire of Sunol, but among all the celebrities
of the trotting turf none have it to the
seemingly exaggerated extent observed
in Sunops outlines. She has an exquisitely
handsome head, marred somewhat, how
ever, by a rather sour expression, and the
neck is of good length and very beauti-
fully lined. The shoulder is prominent,
running obliquely to a rather low and
smoothly turned withers. Her depth
through the heart region and the forma-
ton of the chest give the requisite lung
capacity. There is Just the slightest tend
ency to roach in her back, but the coupling
is strong and the loin broad. The lower
| line of herbarrel runs harmoniously, if |
may so express it, with her back, curving
high at the flank, and this, though she is
not very light-waisted, in connection with
! her great length from the hip to the hook,
gives her the most greyhoundish appear
anee imaginable. She is not particularly
handsome, as the popular idea of the
equine beauty goes, but her speedy and
rakish look has charm for the critical
eye She has the sloping rump that trot-
| ting horSemen define as the pacing con-
formation, and some critics see in these
| outlines resemblance to that great cam
paigner, Goldsmith Maid"
"Tell me about her temper. Has she a
good disposition ~
"She is one of the most nervous, high
strung and cranky animals that ever vexed
the heart of trainer. Not that she is
particularly vicious, but she is amazingly
irritable, and acts as though every indi-
vidual hair was an exposed nerve. | have
seen it stated that Mr.. Bonner will drive
her in Central Park. / do not think he
| will either drive or shoe her"
"How was she trained ?'
"Charles Marvin, Senator Stanford's
trainer, is man of great resources in his
profession, an indefatigable worker, and a
close student of the mental traits of the
horses he trains. He is far and away the
most successful trosting-horse trainer of
| this age, and man of even temper and
superior intelligence. My visit to Palo
Alto was for the purpose Of preparing for
publication work on training, written by
Mr.. Marvin, and necessarily had to study
the Palo Alto methods closely. The usual
course was followed with Sunol. The colt
at Palo Altois weaned at about five months
old, and is then taught to lead by the hal
ter. After he becomes thoroughly accus-
toned to this he is given his first prepare
ton for his turf career. This is on the
miniature track, or, as | call it, the kinder
garten, and, mark you, this innovation is
one of the distinctive features of the sys-
tenn of training which Senator Stanford
and Mr.. Marvin have perfected. This is
a covered track, about one-ffteenth of
mile in circumference, and, in fact, a coun-
terpart in miniature of the regulation
mile track. The colt is led around it I'M
til the novelty wears off, and is then
turned loose, after being carefully booted
with perfect fitting shin and quarter boots.
OF course the colts first impulse is to gal
lop around the track, but he soon settles
into a trot, and he is thereafter kept at it
as much as possible, being controlled by
the voices and the whips Of the trainers,
but he is never struck or treated with the
slightest violence.
"The youngsters learn surprisingly fast
what is wanted of them, and after few
months take the exercise with scarcely a
mistake. Prominent among the good
features OF this training equipment, it may
be mentioned that it sits the good from
the bad, and enables the trainer to pick
out those that are most promising. This
is no small advantage at place of the ex
tent of Palo Alto, whero there are about
300 brood mares in the stud, and from 20
to 100 horses aud colts always in train
ing"
allow long does this training on the
miniature track continue%
Until the colt is about fourteen months
old, it is the only training. After that he
is worked, both in harness and on the
miniature track, until, say two years old,
when he sees the last of the kindergarten.
At about fourteen months of age the colt
is broken to harness, and his work begins
on the mile track This work consists in
short, sharp brushes to develop high speed,
and this brush system is also Palo Alto
innovation. This, with the miniature
track, has been criticised by trainers of
the old school, but their criticisms do not
have much weight against the fact that
horses bred and trained at Palo Alto hold
the fastest trotting record for yearlings,
two-year-olds, three-year-olds and four
year-olds, and Sunops three-year-old rec
ord is within one-half second of Jay Eye
Sees five-year-old record.
"To show how little Mr.. Marvin prac-
tees the old system of drilling horses
many slow miles, instead of driving short
distances at high speed, l may say that
Sunol was never driven around mile
track at speed until day or two before
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