118 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



time the vital question. The outlay would em- 

 barrass him if the mare or colt should die. He fi- 

 nally said yes, and the mother and son were taken 

 to Chester. The bay colt, with star and hind 

 ankles white, grew into a powerful horse 15.2, 

 and was named Hambletonian. His head was 

 large and expressive, his neck rather short, his 

 shoulders and quarters massive and his legs 

 broad and flat. His triple line to thoroughbred 

 Messenger, over the substance imparting cross 

 of Bellfounder, gave us the greatest progenitor of 

 harness speed the world has seen. " 



I once believed all this just as sincerely as I am 

 sure Mr. Busbey believes it, and, some ten years 

 ago, I wrote this fiction about Hambletonian: 



"Messenger begat Mambrino, and Mam- 

 brino begat Abdallah, and Abdallah begat Ham- 

 bletonian. Now, the race may be said to have 

 fairly begun, for there is scarcely a trotting horse 

 in America which has not in its blood one, two, or 

 three strains of this Hambletonian blood, for 

 Hambletonian was the great-sire of trotters. He 

 was a Messenger on both sides, great-grandson in 

 the male line, and grandson and great-grandson 



