As a five-year-old he was started in one race which was won by the then famous Clementine, Voltaire's time being 2:34i. As a six-year-old he did not appear in public, but in his seven year-old form he trotted two races in one week, and was beaten by such horses as St. Julien and Orient, either of whom could trot close to 2:20. He did not start in 1876, being badly handled, and made his first appearance in 1877 at Mystic Park, Boston, June 5, in the 2:50 class, which he won after a had-fought contest of five heats, beating Powers, the hitherto invincible son of Volunteer, and gaining a record of 2:24. At Beacon Park, Boston, June 12, he again defeated Powers in a race of five heats, and trotted in 2:24. At Granite State Park, New Hampshire, June 19, Voltaire and Powers renewed the strug gle, and Powers again met defeat, after a five heat race, Voltaire winning the last three heats. August 28, at Charter Oak Park, he met and defeated such horses as Honest Harry, Tom Keeler, Richard, and Alley, another fast son of Volunteer. This race created great excitement, and was won by the pluck and indomitable cour age of the Hartford stallion, in spite of a strong combination to beat him, and an effort to break down his sulky. This, as usual for him, was a five-heat contest, but it was in reserve for him to win an easy victory (the first of the season) the following week, at Mystic Park, which he did in three straight heats, over the same field of horses as at Hartford, and trotting the third heat in 2:24i, the fastest of the race. His race at the National Breeders' Association Meeting, at Hart ford, was won in great 'style, trotting the last three heats without a break, lowering his record to 2 .211, and placing himself in the foremost rank of trotting stallions. He had in 1877 the fatest record in the State, beating Jefferson's record one and three-quarters seconds, and the second fastest record in New England, the fam ous Smuggler standing first. His career marks him as one of the most successful trotting stal lions that have ever appeared on our trotting turf. Of Almont, Mr. Helm says: We now reach for consideration one of the most remarkable trot ting sires this country has yet produced—a princely son of a royal sire, and worthy of a place in a household of kings and queens. Almont was bred at Woodburn Farm, the home of Alexander's Abdallah, either by Mr. Alexander or Mr. D Swigert—at that time the superintendent—and was foaled in 1864,and sold by Mr. Swigert, when four years old, to Col. Richard West, of Scott county. Ky. His dam was by Mambrino Chief ; second dam by Pilot Jr. ; and third dam, a very highly bred mare owned by Wm. H. Pope, of Louisville, Ky. For the latter mare no pedigree was given, but she was one of those very highly bred animals whose blood being unknown was often claimed for thoroughbred—and while, perhaps, not entitled to that rank, was nevertheless one of the best possible selections on which to start a structure composed of the best of trotting bloods and to culminate in a trotting sire of rare dis tinction and enduring fame. The next link in the chain is that of Pilot Jr., and he by the Canadian pacer Pilot, from a mare having much the same claims to high blood as the one above referred to. 'This Pilot Jr., cross, which will receive' further attention during the progress of these chapters, was one that had the happy and very fertile, faculty of fusing and harmonizing well and readily with any trotting or even racing blood, and giving the product a ready tendency to the trotting gait, and at the same time inter posing no real impediments in the way of cross bred or conflicting anatomy. It lacked fixedness and obstinacy, and served as a sort of amalgam to render opposite and unyielding fields pliant and fruitful, in union with more positive and controlling elements. It was an element that seemed to have affinities for every other, and all tending in a direction to promote ready trotting action, no matter what the combination. It possessed qualities that are difficult to compre hend. While the trotting quality came from an inferior and coarsely bred animal, it had, never theless, the faculty of engrafting a trotting action, to a very great degree, on the produce of other bloods far higher in quality. It even suc ceeded with thoroughbred crosses when the Hambletonian blood failed. Thus, for instance, the grandam of Crittenden,raised two daughters, one by Alexander's Abdallah, that has never been a success, and another by Pilot Jr., that breeds a colt of trotting action approaching the highest type—the latter is the dam of Crittenden.
This is the only aspect or manifestation of the Pilot blood that is clearly visible in Almont, as we shall see further along. The next link in his pedigree brings us to his own dam by Mambrino Chief. Here we have a cross of royal trotting blood in the foreground, and one that was, like the Pilot blood, also noted for its readiness to amalgamate advantageously with any and all other elements, whether of the trotter or the thoroughbred. It was a blood that reached back in straight and short lines to old Messenger, by that process of reuniting, after a certain interval, two or more currents of the same blood, which, in breeding, 'is often found to secure an intensi fied manifestation of the leading or controlling qualities of the particular blood. This is nowhere better illustrated than in the case of the various families of trotters bred or descended from the Messenger family. Although it is true that now and then an able and intelligent critic of rare accomplishments, such as the fluent and versatile editor of the Sportsman, is found ready to detract from the great merits of the blood of Messenger as a trotting constituent, the concur rent testimony of so many others, and such vast numbers of great performances on the trotting turf, do attest the fact that the great trotting blood of the world is that which has come down to us from the great horse, imported Messenger. Almont is a deep or solid bay horse, standing fifteen hands two and one-quarter inches on his withers, and one inch higher on the rump, and weighs, in ordinary condition, 1,175 pounds. His points are black, and the color extends to and includes the knees and hocks; he has the Mambrino Chief badge of a grey right hind leg from the foot to the hock, although not yet very plain, but increasing with age. His mane is medium and his tail rather light. In his measure ment and in his proportions he is almost exactly like Thorndale—his head is in length, twenty six; his neck the same, thirty-five; his hind quarter is thirty-eight and one-half from hip to hock, and twenty-four and one-half in length of thigh—slightly longer; and in his fore leg his relative proportion is just enough different to make their gaits and that of all the Almonts clearly different—eleven and twenty-one; and let it be borne in mind that hi this particular the variation of one-half inch makes a vast difference in the gait of a horse. It will be noticed that Almont is almost precisely ,the same in his fore leg measurement as Volunteer, and the old-time objection that I heard against the Almonts before I ever saw one of them, was that they pointed or dug too much with their forefeet. It is true that, like the Volunteers, they trot best with a light weight; but, as was shown in the case of that family, this clamor about not bending the knees is false in theory and needless in practice. Both families bend their knees enough to get to the end of the race in fast time. But the difference in the matter of elevation of the forefeet, between Thorndale and the Almonts, is very perceptible; while Almont might, without detriment, raise them a little more, Thorndale shows his well up and out in front in vigorous style. In the neck Almont appears slightly heavier than the Ham bletonian model—his shoulder is heavy and very powerful, and extends well forward; his middle piece is excellent, and, with his back and loin short and powerful, gives him the appearance of great compactness and power; but, like all of the best Hambletonians, the excellence of the animal appears to the greatest advantage in the hindquarter. His quarters are exceedingly mus cular; and he carries it both on the outside,and on the inside—and in this connection there is a. family peculiarity pertaining to the Hambleto nians worthy of notice. Many of our powerful trotters, especially those coming from Messenger, Hambletonian or Mambrino Chief blood, on Di omed or Archy crosses, show a great and very powerful muscular development of the outer quarters, and low down on the thigh or gaskin. Many of them widen out at a range with the stifle; but the Hambletonian family are marked from all others in the excessive development of the inside of the quarters and the back part of the great muscle of the quarters—I describe Hambletonian in that part as simply immense. The following record of performers in harness, unless saddle is mentioned, will show the capa bilities of the trotting stock of America, both at short and long distances: