458 THE HORSE AMERICAN TROTTERS 



' Harus,' 2.13^, whose sire was of unknown breeding. At 

 the close of the campaign of 1901, 138 trotters had earned 

 records of 2.10 or better. Of this number, no less than 135 

 were traced to * Hambeltonian.' . . . The most successful horse- 

 men have doubled and redoubled in their studs the blood of 

 the world's famous trotting progenitor, and the greatest of 

 trotters have resulted from this course. 'Crescens 1 (2.02 J), 

 traces to him through both sire and dam, as did ' Alix' (2.03!), 

 and * Nancy Hanks ' (2.04)." The course followed was that of 

 " line-breeding," and the wide area of country over which 

 the various members of the great trotting family spread, no 

 doubt tended to minimise any injurious tendencies from 

 consanguineous breeding by change of environment. As 

 his progeny of to-day have not deteriorated in constitution, 

 they have gained immensely in speed. The two stallions 

 mentioned below, " Axtell " and " Allerton," also belong to this 

 line of descent. "Messenger," mainly through "Mambrino," 

 his most famous son. was the fountainhead of the four chief 

 trotting families of the day (i) the Hambeltonians, (2) the 

 Mambrino Chiefs, (3) the Clays, and (4) the Black Hawks or 

 Morgans. The latter belong to the oldest family of trotters, 

 springing from a horse, "Justin Morgan," foaled in Vermont 

 in 1/93. The Morgans produce useful and profitable 

 roadsters, but they are undersized (14.2 to 15 hands), and 

 consequently do not bring the highest prices. 



"Nancy Hanks" (6), a brown mare bred in 1886 by 

 H. Boswell, Lexington, Ky., first beat record on a regula- 

 tion or round track with 2.07 J, or 2.05 J on a kite-shaped 

 track, which is considered to be two seconds faster than the 

 other; but as a six-year-old, in the autumn of 1892, she 

 lowered her record to 2.04 on a round track, and established 

 her reputation as a " lightning striker." Prior to " Nancy 

 Hanks " the three most famous trotters of the day, called the 

 11 Trinity of flyers," were " Axtell (3) " 2. 1 2, " Allerton (5) " 2.09!, 

 and " Sunol " 2.08^. "Axtell" and "Allerton " were bred by C 

 W. Williams, I ndependence, Iowa. Though " Axtell ' possessed 

 the greatest popular reputation, " Allerton " is believed by 

 experts to have been the better horse. "Axtell" was sold to a 

 syndicate in 1889 for $105,000, then the highest price paid 

 for a horse in America. He was retired to the stud, where 

 he was highly successful, and his service fee fixed at the 



