Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-10-25
THE KENTUCKY BREEDERS MEETING.
LEXINGTON, KY, Oct. 81, 1889.


Editor Register-We reached this city,
M, 81 hours from Middlebury, the long
est stop being an hour ana quarter
at Cleveland. By we, mean Mr.. Bat
tell and myself. We were fortunate in
securing very nice quarters at private
house, the hotels being already crowded,
as we arrived on the second day of the
great trotting meeting, probably the
greatest in number and speed of cOntes-
tants ever held in the world. 1t was the
fall meeting of the Kentucky Trotting
Horse Breeders association, lasting the
entire week, with four races each after
noon. We attended the meeting on Tues
day, Wednesday and Saturday, and saw
some of the best and most interesting
races ever contested. On Tuesday came
the battle of the giants for the $4,000
stake in the 2 20 class. This brought
out the famous Nelson, 2l4t, by Young
Rolfe, and Alcrvon, 2:l6, the grey and
sightless son of Alcyone. The race was
quite generally supposed to be between
these two stations, and Nelson was the
favorite; but the beautiful gray gelding,
Jack, by Pilot Medium, dam by Magma
Charta and, | believe, two more Morgan
strains behind that, did the difficult feat
of showing his nose first at the wire in
three straight heats, in 2:lS4, = 10, 2:l61.
There were six contestants in the race,
the others being Geneva S. by Abdallah
Mambrino, Norval by Electioneer and
Iona by Alcyone. Geneva 5. took sec
ond money, Alcryon third, while Norval,
Nelson and Iona had fourth, fifth and
sixth places in the order named. The
finishes in this race were the most eXcit-
inn | h.ax-.
heat by superior speed on the home
stretch. 1t was great disappointment
to the friends and hackers of Nelson,
who did not seem to be in first-rate con-
dtion. He is coarser horse than ex-
pected to see, having rather a large head
and great length of body. Both Nelson
and Alcryon jog at pace.
The great event of Wednesday was
the free-for-all pace, contested by Roy
Wilkes, Bessemer and Pickaway. Bes-
semer won the first two heats in 2:l63,
2:l53. with Roy Wilkes third, and well
back in the second heat toward the dis
lance stand. In response to a howl from
ROy's hackers, his driver was replaced
by Ed. Geer, who drove him the three
next heats a winner. The judges there
upon fined Roy Wilkes owner $1,000, and
his driver $500, and suspended them until
paid, an action very generally approved.
This Bessemer was bred here in Lex.
ington and had peculiar origin. His
sire, VOltaire, owned by w. II. Craw-
ford, was kept for service at Lexington
one season by two young men named
Stanhope. He had light season and
they gave a service of him to negro who
was blessed with an old mare and a patch
of water-melOns, for what melons they
might want for their own eating that
summer. The result was a brown colt
that the negro traded as yearling to his
grocer for bill of 500. At four years
the colt trotted in 1875, and was ther
trained to pace, and is now Bessemcr
one of the fastest PAGERS on the turf. He
is owned by Rody Patterson of Lexing
ton.
The trotting wonders of the day arr
very largely present, chief among then
being Axtell, three years-old record 2 ~
We did not see him at speed, but looked
him over carefully as he came up unde
the fine old oaks that guard the entranc'
to the stables at the park, driven from
his walking exercise by Budd Doble
who has him In charge. Axtell Is darl
bay colt, developed like five-vear-old
has no marks save a star and faint strip,
in the face; he stands l5a hands, sam,
height on withers and rump, head rathe
fine, neck long, carrying the head yer!
proudly; chest capacious, limb powerful
but hind leg rather crooked at the hocl