Los Angeles herald., 1908-08-17
COAST HORSE
IS SENSATION
STERLING M'KlNNEY BEATS
JACK LEYBURN
LATTER TRIMS SWEET MARIE
DECIDEDLY IN MATCH
Stallion Bred at San Jose and Sold as
six-Year Old for $500 Develops
Great Class and Is ResoId
for $25,
BY DAN PATCH =

BY DAN PATCH >
Horse breeding, especially trotters,
in California, ceased being an expert
ment many years ago. The reputation
of the state (thanks to former Cover
nor Leland Stanford, Mr.. Rose, the
Valensin farm and others) is world
wide and second only to Kentucky,
and that states reputation in breed
ing is more than half founded on its
thoroughbreds. OF late years these big
homes of the trotter have been aban-
doned owing to deaths and other rea-
sons, and breeding is carried on only
spasmodioally or in very limited way,
compared to former times. Yet the
strains and families that made it fa-
nous are still here and unimpaired. Ii
anything, they are improved on the
principle of the survival Of the fittest,
and what stock is now raised is done
on a sounder theory and surer basis.
Originally 1t was more or less an ex-
pertinent among the owners and man
ayers of the farms. They 1t was true,
would get the best sires and brood
mares they could buy, but 1t took some
time to find out that the progeny say,
of Electioneer and a thoroughbred
mare crossed with the Wilkes family,
would prove a happy mix and pro-
duce not only handsome, outstanding,
speedy horse, but one that had level
headedness and staying qualities as
well. And so of any number of other
crosses that could be learned only by
continued experiments at a cost of
time, money and disappointments.
Now, any intelligent man who has
we'll bred mare of standard family
need only to look in the year book and
see how the campaigners of that fam
lily have been bred on the sire's side,
With that data to go on, he has
reasonable chance of being successful
in his efforts to get race horse.
Breeding Winners Uncertain
There is nothing certain in this life
but death and taxes" and this is par
ticularly so of raising real trotters.
Even clergymen's sons do not all turn
out to be ministers, but the percentage
is no smaller an1ong colts intelligently
bred that follow In their sire's foot
steps, and the percentage Of trotters
bred in this way is growing larger year
by year. Even though breeding on the
large scale spoken of hereinbefore has
been abandoned, let us hope tempora-
rily in this state, look at the number
of not only fast horses that show up
every season at the local tracks, but
that when taken to the races will fight
out heat after heat, not only willing,
but anxious, to exert themselves to
the last ounce of strength in their
bodies to stall off the rush of an oppo-
noQL IN LQdC nearL-DT0dkiIlg ldSC
from the distance flag to the wire.
In the last few years, think of the
sensational horses that have left this
state to electrify the trotting world.
1t is not necessary to go back to
STEAMBOAT, Arion and others. There are
today Sweet Marie, Sonoma Girl, Lou
Dillon and perhaps hitherto unknown
stallion that may, before the season
ends, equal If not eclipse their per-
formances, wonderful as they were.
Sterling Mckinney, 2:o6 S-4
Sterling Mckinney is a brown horse,
eight years old. and was bred by ]. w.
Rea of San Jose and is, as his name
indicates, by Mckinney (2:14h), and
his dam was a daughter of Director
(2:1O, and his second dam by Nut
wood (2:1s%). Such breeding indeed
would be hard to improve upon, for un-
doubtedly Mckinney Is the greatest
living sire of extreme and early speed,
not only in his own sons and daugh-
ters but seems to transmit 1t through
them to their get. This is exemplified
by several of his grandsons and
granddaughters at Agricultural park,
notably the tWo-year-old stud Volan-
te, by Zolock. Add to this speed. the
bulldog tenacity and staying qualities
of the Directors, and have that backed
up by the NutWood family, which
seems to be the happy nick to McKin-
ney, 1t surely would entitle the owner
OF such a horse to think he had the
makings of stake winner.
AS a yearling in 1901 he was broken,
for he is eight years old now, and
though not sensational he was thought
well enough of by his owner to turn
him over to a well known trainer to
develop. After a time he was pro-
nounced a rank counterfeit and dis
grace to both sides of his family. Just
FoTy yt,.va 20 nil
jumped into prominence, and the inter-
est in the east occasioned by the sale
of Mckinney himself for $25,000 brought
/ to California several eastern lovers and
breeders of harness horses. among
them Sterling R. Holt of indianapolis.
Attracted by His Breeding
He bought him at pretty much his
own price and shipped him home. There
he was placed in the hands of several
of the best trainers in the country, but
one after another agreed with the
California verdict and Holt decided
that as he seemed doomed to the red
flag in any case he preferred the one
over the auction block to the one In
the hands of the "distance judge" and
Sterling Mckinney went to the No
vember sale of 1906 in his home town,
not even being thought worth the ship
ping to the great sale at Madison
Square garden. There he was bought
by ". L. Shuler, livery stable keeper,
for $500, and it was considered sin to
take the money.
Shuler seemed satisfied with his pur-
chase and carried him over that win
ter, using him as his road horse
around town, and in time overcame. to
a great extent, his nervousness and
erratic ways. In the spring of 1907 Shu-
Ter began training him, recalling the
days when he had trained Lockheart
(2:0S%), Greenleaf (2:101a) and others
that he had campaigned before his
health broke. and drove him from a
sulkey to a buggy. The way he ,"made
speed" would have put a hoppled
PAGER to shame, and 1t was early in
July that he demonstrated his ability
to beat 2:10. Shuler made his first
start with him at Libertyville, Ill,
and rode last In a field of three in
slow time. This was a little discour-
aging. but he started again at Deca-
tur, Ill.
AnneXes TWO Heats
Although he lost the race, he won
two heats in 2:11H and 2:13A. This
seemed to settle him and get him going
steady, for thereafter he won NUM-
Der of good races among others the
$4,000 stake at the Minnesota state fair,