Those who have enjoyed Mr. Meader’s Red Horse Hill will remember Cedar, the great pacing colt, and the stirring snowpath races in which he took part. Here, years later, the grandchildren of old Cedar carry Bud Martin’s colors to victory at Riverdale Fair. Several other characters in the book will be familiar—Uncle John Mason, Billy Randall, Yance and Harko Dan. The new hero is Shad Davis, a lanky youngster from Squantic, born with courage, good hands and a love of horses.
This swift-paced story of the harness track is published at an appropriate time—the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hambletonian 10, founding sire of the standardbred line—when harness racing has reached a peak of popularity not equaled since pre-automobile days.
There is more in this book than racing. Stephen Meader spent a large part of his boyhood in the neighborhood of Rochester, New Hampshire, long famous for its Fair. During Fair Week each September he was always as close to the trotting stables and the track as he could get. It is not surprising then that the ever-present background of the Fair is authentic and sharply drawn, a memorable picture of something that is typically American.
southern skies publishing 