Trotting Horses

TROTTING HORSES. The use of trotting horses dates back many years. As long ago as 1823 a distinct notice of a trotting course appeared in the AMArk11141 Farmer newspa per of that day, and it is recorded that the first time a horse ever trotted in public in the United States for a stake, was in the prize money being $1,000. But it was not until 1830 that the fast course was established and public purses offered in this country. In 1823 the rules for the New York Association for the improvement of the breed of horses; were made, founded upon an Act passed by the Legislature of New York, in 1821. The principal clause is as follows: Be it enacted by the people of the State of New York. represented in _ York Senate and Assembly, that from and after the passing of this Act, the training, pacing, trotting and running of horses, upon regulated courses and upon private property in the county of Queens, is hereby declared to be exempted and freed, for and during the period of five years, from the passing of this Act, from the provisions and penalties of the Act, entitled An Act to prevent horse-racing and for other purposes. While there have been many fast trotting horses whose blood could not be distinctly traced to thoroughbred strains of stock, and while it is true that any active horse may be trained to trot fairly well, the wonderful performances, of late years, of horses bred closely to strains of thorough blood that have developed fast trotting qualities themselves, or which has appeared iu their descendants, would seem to show that the thoroughbred horse is as wonderful in his adapt ation to trotting as he is to running and leaping, Our transatlantic horse fanciers therefore need not feel badly, or rather they may look with pitying contempt upon that class of ill-bred snob-Ameri cans, of which there are many abroad, traveling for the good of their country, who think it smart to assert that there are no trotting horses outside of America. Running horses would soon pound themselves out if obliged to run at speed on English roads. When American roads come to be generally of stone pavement, McAdam, or Telford, it is quite possible that our magnificent roadsters may become a thing of the past, and our trotting horses be confined to feats of the turf exclusively. Another fallacy which some otherwise good horsemen in the United States have fallen into, for the purpose of aggrandizing the performances of our trotting stock, is the assertion, and this time taken from English snobs, that the horse has but two natural gaits, the walk and the gallop. We suppose there are plenty of persons who have seen colts of every breed and degree start off at a square trot, when at play, or who trot naturally and quietly along side their dams, when driven over the road, who could testify in favor of a trotting gait. The fact is, the gallop is never used by the horse except when pushed to escape some fancied or real danger, or upon some emergency, when speed is required greater than the natural trot. Education has indeed much to do with the gait of a horse, consequently some trotting strains of blood gallop most reluctantly; and on the other hand, horses long bred for running, use the trot reluctantly, often breaking from the walk di rectly into the running gait. It might as well be said of the elk, that he can not run. They are natural trotters, and this gait is solely used, except when hard pressed, then they will leap like the deer. The original sources of fast trot ting blood is undoubtedly the thoroughbred, and for the simple reason that their great powers of speed and bottom, caused by a rare combination of bone, muscle, and lung power, had only to be modified as to gait. This conceded, it will also be Conceded that to Messenger is due more than to any other horse, the transmission of the fast trot ting gait to the horse of America. Next in the list probably comes Bellfounder. Messenger had as his first sire Mambrino, second sire Engineer, and third sire Sampson. His first dam, according to the English Stud Book, was by Turf; second sister to Figurant, by Regulus; third by Bolton Starling, running back in his sixth dam to the New Castle Turk, in the seventh to Byerly Turk, in the eighth to Taffolet Barb, and in the ninth to Place's white Turk, and out of a natural Barb mare, and according to the stud book, Messenger ran back beyond Sampson to Blaze, Flying Childers, and the Darley Arabian. Among the more remarkable families descended from Messenger, the author of Roadsters and Trotting Horses enumerates the following : Trustee gained reputation by the performance of a son trotting twenty miles within an hour but the dam of the trotter was a daughter of Winthrop Messenger. The Morse horse, sire of Norman, sire of Black wood and Swigert, was descended on the dam's side from two different son's of Messenger. Rhode Island, sire of Gov. Sprague, derived all the known trotting blood he possessed from his de scent from Romp, a daughter of Messenger. The family Royal Georges and Panics descended from Ogden's Messenger, and perhaps have a cross from Hambletonian, son of Messenger. Mambrino Chief and his family descended from Mambrino and Messenger Duroc, whose dam was a daughter of Messenger. The American Star family come from two and perhaps three daughters of Messenger. The great Hamble tonian was a son of Abdallah, and an in-bred Messenger. The Bashaw and Clay families come from a branch of the descendants of imported Grand Bashaw, that extended back ward to a daughter of Messenger. The trotting family of Cadmus descend from American Eclipse, whose dam was Miller's Damsel, the celebrated daughter of Messenger. The Morrils, Knoxes and Ethan Allen, the best of the trotters of Morgan descent, have crosses of Messenger blood. Coming to Bellfounder, about which horse there has been many conflicting statements: He was imported into Boston, in 1822. He was horse of fine trotting power, for that day, both at short and long distances, he having been recorded as having trotted, in England, two miles in six minutes, and also nine miles, some twenty-two seconds inside of thirty minutes. Hid dam, Velocity, is recorded to have trotted, in 1806, sixteen miles in a hour, and, in 1808, twenty eight miles in an hour and forty-seven minutes. A direct descendant of Bellfounder, brought to Chicago about 1853, proved a getter of fine trotters. The Editor, at that time a breeder of blooded horses and cattle, had this Bellfounder horse stinted to two of his best mares, the proving fast and easy going, smooth trotters, as elegant in form as they were fast. Duroc also is conceded to have exercised a good, effect in forming some of our trotting families. He was a large horse, of great bone and muscle, courageous and resolute. At one time the wide gait behind was eagerly sought for. This was a characteristic of the Duroc blood. The horse possessed some infirmities of blood, which showed themselves in a disposition to curbs. ringbones and sprains. The Duroc-Mes senger especially, is noted as nicking kindly with the blood of almost any of the trot ting families. The following description of some of the most famous, of the various high cast trotting families must suffice to close this article. They are taken from Roadsters and Trotting Horses, by Mr. Helm, previously quoted : By right of acknowledged pre-eminence, Ham bletonian claims our consideration as the first on the list of great stallions. He was foaled on the 5th of May, 1849, at Sugar Loaf, Orange county, N. Y., and is now (March 1, 1876) nearing the day when he shall have attained the full age of twenty-seven years. With proper care and treatment he may survive several years longer, but his fame, and the renown of his family, will live in the breeding annals of this country for many generations yet to come. Having been employed in service to an extent greater, per haps, than any stallion ever produced, his back has become much swayed, and this has worked a change in his form, constituting a wide depart ure from the magnificent original. For some months past he has also suffered from the effects of epizootic catarrh, which has operated much to depress the otherwise vigorous health of this most remarkable animal. But in the face of all the assaults of age, and these infirmities, inci dent to long service, and the inclemency of the season, he stands to-day a splendid exhibition of equine perfection. His coat is, ordinarily, of the brightest bay, his legs black, the black extending above the knees and hocks, with white socks behind (in size precisely alike), and a small white star in his forehead. His feet are neither small nor large, and as near the right model as I have seen anywhere. His pasterns not long or short, and from the sole of his foot upward he is as near perfection as I have ever known. His ankles and knees are large, and his cannon-bones flat, clean and hard to the touch, fine in texture and smooth on the surface. His hock is the firmest and the cleanest I ever grasped, and the large tendon, extending above, is very large and firm. I have not seen a horse, of any age,whose limbs and joints showed a finer texture or quality—more total absence of that gummy coarseness of cellular tissue which marks some even of the noted stallions of the day—his joints showing that perfect absorption of their synovial fluids, .without which such an advanced age can not be obtained without great infirmity of limbs, and the development of marks and blemishes indicative of the imperfections so common in horses everywhere. There has been no firing nor blistering, and no resort to anything to stimulate absorption of synovial fluids, his own superior quality of bone, tendon, sinew, muscle, fiber and nerve, having been sufficient to exclude all-approach of disease or tendency toward infir mity. He constitutes the best illustration I have ever seen of the highly-bred and finely-textured horse, as contrasted with the coarse-grained,soft, low-bred,beefy-limbed and gummy-jointed plug. His own perfection will be seen to better advan tage, and more clearly illustrated, when we come to consider the qualities, high and low, of other stallions, even though some of them be the eons of this royal sire. Hambletonian has a knee thirteen and a half inches in circumference, a hock seventeen and a half inches; is fifteen, inches around the smallest part of the limb and' back tendon above the hock. From the center of the.hip-joint to the point of the hock he is forty-one inches; from point of stifle to point of bock the length of his thigh is twenty-four inches; from the point of hock to center of ankle-joint he is sixteen inches; from center of foreankle to center of knee, eleven and a half inches; from center of knee to top of forearm joint, twenty and a half inches. His neck,from the notch in the vertebra on his withers to the extreme poll, is thirty-two inches, and ou the underside his windpipe is only sixteen inches, giving him the appearance of a horse with a fine crest, but a -very short neck. His shoulders extend forward at the point, very far and very strong and prominent, givinghim a square, mas sive appearance, add one of great power. From hip to' hip he is twenty-four inches, and in his hack of medium length, round barrel, and mas sive, powerful hind-quarters, are found the com pletion of the powerful outline of this horse. Speaking of the Bellfounder blood Mr.Helm says : It is quite probable that the true character and genius of Bellfounder did not shine out in Hamble tonian. In the Charles Kent mare and Abdallah blood, elements met which had some positive ingredients of dissimilarity. Although there is gobd reason, founded on many facts that come to my mind, for believing that Bellfounder and Mes senger had a kindred origin, they had run in chan nels so far apart as to acquire certain diversities of quality, and their union in Ham aletonian did not at the same time furnish „a:: zonditions to call out in full force the excresarve ...ad distinc tive qualities of each. Both were there, but they could not both shine out with original brilliancy. Subse4uently, in Goldsmith Maid, the Abdallah blood rose to its zenith, and shines to-day with a light that tells us how much has lain latent or hidden in the union of two bloods, whose bril liancy is often concealed by the very combina tion that is at the same time essential to the great est fame and excellence of each. Thus it has been with this Bellfounder blood. Hambletonian was not a great success with mares strong in Bell founder blood; but several of his sons have shown great success with mares remotely descended from Bellfounder. The dams of Bodine, St. Julien, Gazelle, Prospero, Reform, and others that have been previously named, run back to Bellfounder, and in their success testimony is found to prove the outlasting merit of this blood. It is one of the noteworthy facts in breeding that in regard to several of the important sources from whence we have derived our trotting blood the original fountain did not seem to give us as rich and beautiful currents as those that have sprung from later or more diluted branches. The native germ of excellence lay in the parent stock, but the most excellent manifestations of the blood are seen after it has been filtered through other forms and in part toned down or modified by other elements. It was so with the blood of Messenger. In itself, while it had two tenden cies the trotting inclinations had to be freed in a measure from their native combination with the Arab elements that were blended with them. His success as a trotting sire is seen best in his more remote descendants, since the alliance of his blood with the other trotting elements have eliminated its real trotting excellence and pre sented the same ready for acceptable use in any combination. Likewise such was the case with Pilot the pacer. His blood was foreign and had to be naturalized by a commingling with that of the thoroughbred, after which it became an acceptable cross for any and all bloods which had original consanguinity with or toward the warm blooded families. Our experience with_ the blood of Bellfounder shows clearly that in its original form as presented fresh from the Nor folk trotter it possessed one element, a real drug that did not fuse readily in any combination. He was not, in his own immediate efforts in the introduction of his blood on this continent, an absolute success. Tested by his first fruits, and the essential transmitting qualities his own descendants seemed to possess, he was a failure. True, the Charles Kent mare was a trotter, and her power to transmit these qualities of the Bell founder blood were enough to save him. The same may be said of the daughter that produced Harry Clay. Something may also be said of like import of one or two others, but these were all out of twenty years' service and a current popu larity that surpasicd any contemporary stallion. Abdallah was unpopular—almost discarded— yet he left his powerful impress everywhere. Nevertheless of Bellfounder it may be said his success lies in the fact that he planted the germ, and in the later crosses of that blood its real force and value is coming out. Doubtless some of the sons of Hambletonian will in breeding dis play the richer qualities of the Bellfounder blood in greater force than Der as displayed by him. The o-ly trotters he lat from mares of that blood that attained any distinction are Gazelle, and James Howell Jr., and their dams were by Harry Clay. His sons have been more success ful in the same union thus far than he was. He has left several entire sons who were strong in the blood of Bellfounder, but not one of them has yet produced a 2:30 trotter; Rysdyk's Bell founder, Manhattan, Idol, Electioneer—not one son of Hambletonian and a mare of Bellfounder blood has yet produced a 2:30 trotter; and only two of his own produce from such mares have trotted in 2:30, excepting, of course, daughters of his own sons. On the other hand, Volunteer has produced Bodine 2:19+, St. Julien 2:22k,

Goldsmith's Abdallah 2:30, his grandam being a mare of Bellfounder blood, and he has produced Hickory, 2:30. Messenger Duroc has produced Elaine, 2:28, three years old: Hogarth, 2:26, four years old, and Prospero, 2:20. Jay Gould has produced King Philip, 2:21; all from mares of that blood. Belmont, by Alexander's Abdallah, was from a mare of Bel Ifounder blood, and he has produced three trotters with records respec tively 2:23i, 2:24i, and 2:39. And one of the most promising two year olds by Almont was from a mare of similar composition. The value and true richness of the blood is now coming out in the more remote descendants, and that which has sustained so much odium is now re turning to the flood tide of popularity. To-day it is the ascending current in popular estimation. By its union with other bloods. and especially with what would seem to be its kindred blood in the Messenger family, it has eliminated from itself the gross and cold elements which came from some inferior English road stock, and has also by the alliance thrown into the back ground the Arab tendencies of the Messenger strains, and the fusion thus presented now displays its trotting quality and its prepotent breeding capac ities in far greater degree than they were seen in the first or original combinations. The dam of Florida having so much of this blended Mes senger and Bellfounder character has presented in Florida an exact medium or intermediate be tween Hambletonian and Volunteer. He is much like each. Volunteer has been acknowledged by all to show more in his outward form and appearance of the Bellfounder type than any of the older sons of Hambletonian, which is, per haps, owing to the fact that in the composition of his dam those conditions appeared that were required for calling into active force the essen tial Belltounder elements; but in the dam of Florida, a daughter of this same Volunteer, were found still more nearly the essential con ditions requisite to call into action the nerve force, temperament, physical and mental charac teristics of the Bellfounder horse, as we have nowhere else seen them since the days of the original and greatly admired Norfolk trotter. I have seen in Kentucky a two year old—the Crom well filly—by Almont, the grandam of which was by Bellfounder Jr., a son of the Ohio Bell founder, that displayed in living colors the gen uine Bellfounder type, as shown in a gait that will some day call to mind memories of the old Norfolk trotter, and at the same time will shine out with an original brilliancy in a new con stellation that has appeared in the galaxy since his star went beneath the horizon. To an eye that has learned to revel in the excellence of this most lovely of trotting gaits, it is no rare sight to witness an exact and faithful exhibition of it at the rate of 2:40, in a two year old filly. Mar velous indeed must have been the high qualities of that sire that could, in his daughter, Gold smith Maid, exhibit the purity and elastic rich ness of the finer Abdallah gait, and in his grand daughter, through the interposition of a remote cross, produce the genuine Bellfounder gait in all its nervous richness, and exhibiting a poise of body, and a steady, quick, and almost flying stroke, scarcely seen since the days of the great original. So of the Duroc-Messenger blood, writ ing of Administrator, Mr. Helm states as follows! His dam was by Mainbrino Chief, whose dam may be set down as a granddaughter of Duroc. His third dam was by Duroc Messenger, a grandson of Duroe. This gives this horse two crosses of Duroe blood, which is visible in only one particular in his entire composition. He has a thigh twenty-four and one-half inches in length, but has scarcely a trace of the Duroc ele ment in his gait. Instead of swinging his hocks wide out, and trotting with a sprawling, wide, open gait, as it is called, lie trots as close and true as Lady Thorn with her twenty-three-inch thigh. His length from hip to hock, for so large a horse, is not great—thirty-nine and one-half inehes—but he lifts his foot up squarely, and spreads out his stifle, and sets each foot forward as truly in line as any son of Hambletonian in the land. This is entirely owing to the muscular conformation of his quarters, and their great pro portions. His flank room is ample, and his mus cle so works as to throw his stifle out wide, and yet his hocks are not widened enough to give him the appearance of a sprawler. His gait for a large horse is greatly admired and approved by all horsemen. This is contrary to the average Duroc characteristics, which generally are found in a flank of insufficient depth, and muscles so apportioned as to either beat the belly with the stifles, or go with wide, open gait. A gait of fair and reasonable width is desirable for clean, non-interfering action, but beyond that it is objectionable. In trotting he throws his feet well out in front, and bends his knees admirably without lifting them too high, and his hind feet extend well backward, but not so noticeably as in the Clay and Patchen families generally; while the steady and powerful stroke with which they are brought up under his body and sent for ward, gives him the momentum of a vefy pow ful trotter; yet for all that, his way of going betokens the greatest ease. The muscles of the i body and of the limbs and quarters work in such perfect harmony as to secure this easy and steady appearance in his trotting action. While it is true that his double lines of Duroe blood are not the controlling elements in his composition, the real force and value of that blood is present iu him in as rich a combination as can anywhere be found in this country. He is, in fact, a beau ideal of a Duroc-Messenger. The three elements of his composition—Messenger, Duroc, and Bell founder—are so finely inwrought and so com pletely blended as to form a perfect and homo geneous union, and work together in entire har mony and in the exuberance of the most abso lute healthfulness. Not an infirm trait or ten dency is manifest in him. He is a great strong horse, positive in his Messenger characteristics. He has that ready fusible and ever affiliating caste which distinguishes the union of the Mes senger and Duroc bloods. He has also the rich qualities of the Bellfounder blood in a form and degree where they are more readily reached and applied—more yielding and fusible perhaps than they existed in Hambletonian himself. The com posite of the first two bloods formed the truest and most suitable soil in which to reproduce the best fruits from the more uncertain and unyeild ing Bellfounder. While a Duroc-Messenger mare may not have been the equal of a Bellfounder in genuine trotting quality, such a mare would have furnished a 'field far more yielding and fruitful to the impress of any other blood. It was notably a union that readily impressed all other bloods and as readily swallowed them all up in any composition into which they all entered. We have never had an element in the American trotting horse that was so universally successful in uniting with any and all other bloods—in imparting richness to them, and in receiving all their good qualities—as this same union of Duroc and Messenger. The Bell founder blood was a very coy element. It had no readiness for other strains, and it was not un til it was filtered through distant and remote crossings that its dross was so far eliminated as to give us its pure gold, but when that state was reached, no gold Ophir, of the Sierra Nevada ever shone with such a radiance and enduring lustre. The strong Duroc-Messenger caste of the dam of Administrator was the field of more than alluvial fertility to the pent-up excellences of Hambleto nian. The excellence of the union of the blood of Duroc and Messenger, for trotting purposes, was seen at an early day in the Eastern States. Duroc was taken to Long Island at a time when the daughters of Messenger were very abundant. The success of American Eclipse as a race-horse justified the opinion that they would excel on that branch of the turf. The large numbers of such mares that were sent to Duroc, and the early promise of the union for road purposes, served to make the cross a popular one. Steven's Messenger Duroc, and Stockholm's American Star, were both used for racing purposes at an early .age, and both gave evidence of special adaptation to the trotting gait and of great excel lence for road purposes. The former stood in the central portions of the State of New York, and gave us 'the dam of Mambrino Chief—a matter of which there can be hardly any reason able doubt in the mind of the student of horse breeding who carefully and fairly considers the matter of locality, chronology and blood qualities in the respective families. The latter, known as the first American Star, from a daughter of the little Diomed horse, Henry, son of Sir Archy, gave us Seely's American Star. The grandam being by Messenger, the essential Duroc charac teristics are in this family slightly modified, both by the Henry cross and the increased Messenger, but the Duroc-Messenger caste and type in the family prevails in such strong degree as to give the whole or predominant character to the fam ily, even to the descendants of Hambletonian, that have come from Star mares—they are essen tially Duroc-Messenger in their type qualities, both in matter of gait and blood traits. The high trotting quality of the Duroc-Messenger blood is displayed in eminent degree in the various branches of the4amilies thus descended. They are bold and fr drivers, going with a ready, open, and sweeping stride. They display their readiness for the trotting gait at a very early age, never lacking for courage and resolu tion, and showing much less nervous intracta bility than many other families. They bear early training, and can be forced to the utmost displays of speed with an ease and freedom from excitement shown by few families. They dis play a total absence of that hot-headedness which characterizes some otherwise valuable strains. While they require but little of the lash, they will bear it, and let out the last links they pos sess. These qualities render the Duroc-Messen ger a class that bear training early, hence the earliness of their fame as trotters. They excel in the class of two and three-year-old performers. Their courage and phick in the severe contests of a race never fail, and the name of quitter can not with any degree of propriety be applied to them. They are also distinguished for the success of this blood when crossed with other stock that are totally deficient in trotting action. The produce of stallions from this cross on thoroughbred and other highly bred mares is often marked with a high degree of excellence. Of Dexter, a Star-Hambletonian, it is only nec essary here to give mention. His fame is one. of pride to every lover of the American horse. Goldsmith Maid, of Abdallah blood, was in every respect a phenomenon. Her biography is given as follows: This Queen of the Trotting Turf, ,,was foaled in 1857. She was bred by John B. Decker, of Sussex county, N. J. Her dam was one of those yellow-bay mares so common in the produce of old Abdallah. She was under sized, fretful, and of a nervous temperament, and up to the age of six years had performed no work of any kind, except to run occasional races about and on the farm, for the amusement of the boys. In 1863 she was sold by Mr. Decker for $260; the purchaser selling her again, on the same day, to Mr. Tompkins, for $360; and she was soon afterward bought by Mr. Alden Goldsmith, for $600. The eye of the practical horseman discovered that she was worth the handling. He discovered her ability, and soon brought the world to a knowledge of her value; under his careful and patient management, and the skillful drivers employed by him she soon displayed such speed and extraordinary qualities of game and endurance, that he was able to sell her, at about the age of eleven years, for the sum of $20,000. She was subsequently sold for the sum of $37,000. She has been matched against all the great trotters of her period; and, while she has occasionally lost a race, she has ultimately vanquished all competitors, and steadily lowered the record for trotting per formances, and, at the age of eighteen, marked the marvelous, and thus far unapproachable, record of a mile in 2 :14. Twice during the year 1876 she trotted in a race in 2:15, and although in her first race against the renowned Smuggler she was beaten, she by no means surrendered her queenly sceptre, for again, at Buffalo, she asserted her supremacy in the three fastest suc cessive heats on record. Proudly does she command the sympathy and applause of all beholders when she hurls at her powerful com petitor the defiant challenge, You may become King, but I am yet Queen. Goldsmith Maid is a bay mare fifteen and a quarter hands high, no white. She appears, at first glance, to be rather delicately made, but this conception is drawn from the form rather than the quality of her make-up. Her head and neck are very clean and blood-like; her shoulder sloping and well placed; middle piece tolerably deep at the girth, but so light in the waist as to give hei a tucked up appearance, and oue would say a lack of constitution, but for the abundant evidence to the contrary; loin and coupling good; quarters of the greyhound order, broad and sinewy; her limbs are clean, fine-boned and wiry ; feet rather small, but of good quality. She is high mettled, and takes an abundance of work 'without flinch ing. In her highest trotting form, drawn to an edge, she is almost deer-like in appearance, and when scoring for a start and alive to the emer gencies of the race, with her great flashing eye and dilated nostrils, she is a perfect picture of animation and living beauty. Her gait is long, bold and sweeping, and she is, in the hands of a driver acquainted with her peculiarities, a perfect piece of machinery. She seldom makes an out-and-out break, but frequently makes a skip, and has been accused of losing nothing in either case. Aside from the distinction of hav ing trotted the fastest mile on record, she also enjoys the honor of making the fastest three consecutive heats ever won in a race, which renders any comments upon her staying qualities unnecessary. the continued on the turf until past twenty years old, and after completing that age she closed her public career with the year 1877 by trotting during that year forty-one heats in 2:30 or better, and making a time record of 2-14%. Her record stands at the close of her career at 2-14, with 332 heats in 2:30 or better. Her record and her career are the marvel of the age Of VoltaireMr. Helm says, he is a stallion worthy of a place and a sketch among the first of his race and.the age in which he lives, and adds: I find a sketch of Voltaire in a public print, which, with slight change, I here reproduce as part of my notice of this now justly celebrated stallion: Voltaire is a ten-year old dark bay stal lion, by Tattler; dam Young Portia, by Mam brino Chief; second dam by Roebuck; third dam by Whip. He is a very dark bay, with no white; stands fifteen and a half hands high, a horse of great substance for his inches, weighing nearly one thousand one hundred pounds, in good road condition. He is upheaded, goes in great style, and is a hard one to whip in any class. Starting in June, without a record, he met and defeated some of the best horses on the turf, winning six successive victories, without a defeat, and winding up his trotting season at the National Breeders' Meeting, by winning the 2:20 stallion purse, beating such good ones as Black wood, Jr., and Nil Desperaud urn, and lowering his record to 2:211. His breeding represents three trotting crosses, and the balance thorough bred blood, which helps to account for his won derful staying qualities. He has beauty of form and color, very rapid action, fine disposition, and is as game a horse as ever looked through a bridle.