Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-09-20

rs tney now Stanu with tne :5U standard
as our basis. These are our reasons for
giving our preference to Aristos.'"
Now | ardently admire Aristos. have
never seen purer trotting gait than his,
| appreciate his elegance of form and
stylish carriage, and | deem that his
success in the stud, especially in pro-
ducing Gillig, 2 :233 at four years, and
Winship 2 :201 in harness and 2 :06 with
running mate, justly entities him to
high place among great trotting sires.
Yet do not consider the above reason
ing of the judges sound, and do not agree
in their conclusion.
In the first place the difference between
2;27i and 2:29, one and one-fourth
seconds in favor of Aristos, in two
horses that each spent but one season on
the turf and did not, either of them,
reach anything like the limit of his speed,
is not very significant, and is fully bal
anced by Ben Franklin's greater success
as race winner. In form and structure
Ben Franklin has few superiors on earth,
and | doubt if the judges themselves
would count Aristos, elegant and justly
proportional as he is, among them. But,
they say, Arstos is certainly better bred.
say he is certainly not. For the COM
mittee overlook the fact that the two
foals of Black Kate that appear in the
30 list are her only two foals that ever
tO nj
has had q have not the list before me- |
think more than a dozen, of which four
are in the list. This certainly makes
Fanny jackson very great mare, but
not with 30 per cent or so of her foals in
the list, by any means greater than Black
Kate with 100 per cent of hers in the
same list. Going step further back
do not find it recorded that either Stone
wall jackson, sire of Fanny jackson, or
his sire, Wiliamson's Black Hawk. ever
producing other speed than what came
through Fanny jackson herself; while
Addison, sire of Black Kate, produced a
son that got Tommy Lynn, 2:l5i, and
Addison himself was out of trotting
daughter of Andrus' Hambletonian, sire
of the famous Princess @ 30), that
rivalled Flora Temple in her day and
became still more distinguished as the
dam of Happy Medium that, the day be-
fore his death, was the greatest living
sire of trotters. Probably, after consid-
ering these points, the committee would
concede that Aristos is not certainly
better bred than Ben Franklin.
In respect to get shown, Aristos could
hardly be deemed fortunate. His four
year-old, Aristotle, was handsomely
beaten next day by II. II. Franklin, son
of his rival, while o. G. D., his three
year-old, was left distance out in three
straight heats, on Wednesday, by the
nimble Hubby b. that was shown against
him by Ben Franklin, and on Thursday
was led into camp by Peerless Ben,
another of the get of his unsuccessful"
opponent.
But, taking the committees own stand
ard, the , 80 list, and ignoring all out
side of it Gas | think the committee
should not do, especially when noted
sire of colt winners is competing). even
then think the committee erred in not
allowing for the difference in age in the
competing horses. | can see no fair way
TO Judge the merit of sres by their get in
in the = 30 list other than by comparing
them at the same age. Today, Aristos
and Ben Franklin stand precisely equal
in numbers in the 2 80 list; each has
five trotters and one PAGER. Aristos is
10 and Ben l6 years old Three years
ago, when Aristos was l6, he had but
single trotter in the = 80 list. In other
words, Ben Franklin at l6 years excels
Aristos at the same age in number in the
2 80 list, six to one.
Well, as Mr.. Cults has said in his adj
vertisements, "success is the criterion of
merit" not the award of committees.
Very likely the Judgment of his army of
patrons, too large to be all accommodated,
who have persisted in paying for the
services of Ben Franklin double what
was charged for those of Aristos, has as
much weight as that of any board of
premium judges. There is getting to be
a prejudice against giving the Frankins
anything, created by their uniform habit
of taking without leave the lions share
of everything set up to be tlotted for. |
understand this was the avowed reason
why Clay Franklin was ignored at the
last Middlebury fair, though he was able
to out-show and out-trot the party, and
his get were capturing prizes right and
left. can conceive of no other reason
why Mr.. Keyes' noble pair were overlook
ed at the Breeders meeting. Doubtless
this was one thing that enabled quar-
tette of four-legged non-entiues at the
New England Fair last season, aided by
a tabulated hugger-mugger called scale
of points, in the hands of couple of in
spired idiots, to take the premiums over
Ben Franklin himself. Too many favor
IA IL L