STUD BOOK. 1-43 



The first public trotting course on Long Island was 

 opened in 1825. 



Some three years after, the Hunting Park Association was 

 organized in Philadelphia. 



For many years after this, two minutes forty seconds 

 was thought to be " rushing time." 



Messenger has had such a permanent effect upon our 

 trotting stock, that more or less of his blood is to be found 

 in the veins of all our most famous trotters. We here give a 

 brief history of that noble stallion, and other famous horses, 

 taken from that excellent work, " Every Horse Owner's Cy- 

 clopedia." published by Porter & Coates, Philadelphia. 



Messenger was an English thorougbred, foaled in 1780, 

 and imported, as were many other English thoroughbreds, on 

 account of his value as a running horse, and for the improve- 

 ment of thoroughbreds in this country. He had run success- 

 fully in several races, and, at five years old, won the King's 

 Plate. It was three years after this performance, 1788, that 

 he was imported into New York by Mr. Benger. The first 

 two seasons after his arrival he was kept at Neshaminy Bridge, 

 near Bristol, in Bucks County, Pa. Mr. Henry Astor then 

 purchased him, and kept him on Long Island for two years. 

 About this time Mr. C. W. Van Ranst purchased an interest 

 in him, and for the remainder of his life he was kept in 

 various parts of the State of New York, with the exception of 

 one year at Cooper's Point, in New Jersey, opposite Philadel- 

 phia. He died January 28, 1808. 



Messenger was a gray, 15 hands 3 inches high, and stoutly 

 built. His form was not strictly in conformity with the 

 popular notions of perfection, being upright in the shoulders 

 and low on the withers, with a short, straight neck and a 

 large, bony head. His loins and hind-quarters were power- 

 fully muscular, his windpipe and nostrils of unusual size, his 

 hocks and knees very large, and below them limbs of medium 

 size, but flat and clean; and, whether at rest or in motion, his 

 position and carriage always perfect and striking. It is said 

 that during the voyage to this country the three other horses 

 that accompanied him became so reduced in flesh and strength 

 that when the vessel landed at New York they had 

 to be helped and supported down the gang-plank; but when 

 it came to Messenger's turn to land, he, with a loud neigh, 

 charged down the gang-plank, with a colored groom on each 

 side holding him back, and dashed off up the street at a stiff 

 trot, carrying the grooms along in spite of their efforts to stop 

 him. 



