GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIELD. 21 



and his daughters were very famous as the producers of trotters. 

 Hambletonian's dam, the Kent Mare, was by imported Bell- 

 founder, a horse that got no trotters practically, but this mare 

 was the fastest four-year-old of her time, and that because she was 

 out of a very fast mare, One Eye, that was a double granddaugh- 

 ter of Messenger. That is, One Eye was by Hambletonian, the 

 son of Messenger, and out of Silvertail, a daughter of Messenger. 

 This double Messenger mare was unknown to the trotting turf, 

 but she was well known throughout Orange County as a remark- 

 ably fast trotter. Hence Hambletouian not only possessed more 

 Messenger blood than any horse of his generation, but that blood 

 came to him through developed trotters, and he had a right to 

 surpass all competitors, especially the two that were, at one time, 

 the most prominent. 



Several of the sons of Hambletonian, as shown by the tabular 

 statistics which will be introduced, became greater than their 

 sire, not only in getting trotters from their own loins, but in 

 transmitting the trotting instinct to their descendants. The 

 growth and spread of this family is far and away beyond any prece- 

 dent that can be cited in any age or country, and is simply mar- 

 velous. It is said that fully ninety per cent, of the fast trotters 

 now on the turf have moreor less of the blood of Hambletonian 

 in their veins, and I think it is a safe conclusion to say that 

 no intelligent breeder in all the country is trying to produce 

 trotters without it. All the other tribes are dropping out of 

 sight, and at the present ratio of rise and fall it will be but a few 

 years till every trotter on the turf will be credited in some 

 degree to the one really great progenitor, Hambletonian. The 

 other tribes will not be blotted out nor will their merits be lost, 

 but absorbed into the mightier tribe. 



Such families as the Bashaws, the Clays, the Black Hawks, the 

 Mambrino Chiefs, the Pilots, the American Stars, the Blue Bulls, 

 etc., will be fully considered through several chapters, according 

 to their strength and merit. As these families have not been 

 able to hold their own in the rush to the front, and as they seem 

 to be falling further to the rear in the number and quality of 

 their performers each succeeding year, we may as well begin to 

 designate them as "the minor families." Their inheritance was 

 feeble and unsatisfactory, and more or less sporadic, and we never 

 had any right to expect a brilliant and permanent success from 

 such beginnings. 



