THE NATIONAL HORSE OF AMERICA. 699 
who owned him until he died. He was a bay horse of excellent 
structure, but very plain, the large head and Roman face especially 
rendering him objectionable to the eye of the lover of form. Mr. 
Rysdyk never was anxious to show the speed of his horse, but that he 
possessed fair trotting capacity abundant evidence from many wit- 
nesses demonstrates. As a three-year-old he trotted in public in 
2:48, and, considering the time and circumstances, it marked him as 
a great natural trotter. This world-famous progenitor died March 
27, 1876. 
It calls for a large book of records to tell in detail what the Ham- 
bletonian family has accomplished on the turf. I shall only be able 
to give anidea of its triumphs in general termsand numbers. Forty 
of the sons and daughters of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian have made 
trotting records ranging from 2:17} to 2:30. One hundred and three 
sons of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian have sired 494 trotters with records 
ranging from 2:08 to 2:30. Thirty-nine daughters of Hambletonian 
have produced 45 trotters with records of 2:30 or better. His greatest 
sons are Alexander’s Abdallah, Aberdeen, Dictator, Edward Ever- 
ett, Electioneer, George Wilkes, Happy Medium, Harold, Jay Gould, 
Masterlode, Messenger, Duroc, Middletown, Sentinel, Strathmore, 
Sweepstakes, and Volunteer. These are not only great sires, but 
most of them the heads of great subfamilies. To follow these 
several lines downward through successive generations with any 
degree of fullness would be wearisome to the reader not specially in- 
terested in speed production, and would involve an array of statistical 
tables not within the scope of this article. In general terms, how- 
ever, it may be stated that the Hambletonian subfamilies founded by 
Alexander’s Abdallah, Electioneer, George Wilkes, Happy Medium, 
Harold, and Volunteer are the most highly esteemed, because the 
most productive. Alexander’s Abdallah got Goldsmith Maid, 2:14, 
the greatest of campaigning mares, and he got Almont, one of the 
greatest trotting sires of any age, and Belmont, little less noted, he 
having produced Nutwood, 2:18?, and Wedgewood, 2:19, both re- 
nowned on the turf and in the stud. George Wilkes was a king of 
the turf in his day, and to-day holdsa higher rank as a trotting pro- 
genitor than any other horse, living or dead, if we except Hamble- 
tonian himself. He is the sire of more turf performers than any 
horse, and his sons evince the same speed-producing power. The 
other sons of Hambletonian just named are in varying degress less 
famous, but they are all esteemed equine kings. 
Mambrino Chief, the head of the family that ranks next to that of 
Hambletonian, was foaled in Dutchess County, N. Y., in 1844, and 
was got by Mambrino Paymaster, son of Mambrino, from a mare 
whose blood lines are lost in the ‘‘ mists of the West.” She produced 
also Goliah and the Livingston horse, trotters of respectable capacity, 
and whatever her blood may have been she added to that of Mam- 
brino Paymaster a quickening and fructifying element. Mambrino 
Chief was a fast trotter. ‘‘He was never in the hands of a trainer, 
yet he could trot in 2:32, and doubtless in the hands of a trainer could 
show 2:20 far more easily than many of the great trotters of our own 
day.” Mambrino Chief got 6 trotters that made records of 2:30 or 
better, the most renowned being the famous Lady Thorn, 2:18; 23 of 
his sons sired 75 trotters, and 15 of his daughters produced 19 trot- 
ters. His best sons were Woodford Mambrino, 2:214, Clark Chief, 
and Mambrino Patchen, brother to Lady Thorn. The blood of Mam- 
brino Chief, like that of the Clays, American Stars, and, it may be 
