31% THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



trotted a slow New Jersey track in 2:24^. This horse was foaled 

 in 1866, and was a bay fifteen hands three inches high, and very 

 stoutly, indeed coarsely made, and was of a dangerously vicious 

 disposition. The good race mare Hattie Woodward, that made 

 a record of 2:15^, first attracted attention to Aberdeen as a sire, 

 and in 1881 he was purchased by General Withers and taken to 

 Fairlawn, and before this his stud opportunities had been very 

 limited. He died in 1892. By far the best of his get is the 

 great mare Kentucky Union, that made a record of 2:07^ in 1896. 

 Aberdeen has forty in the standard list, fourteen of his sons have 

 produced fifty-seven, and seventeen of his daughters have pro- 

 duced nineteen standard performers. 



SWEEPSTAKES must be classed among the successful sons of 

 Hambletonian as a sire of trotters, though in the second genera- 

 tion his family have yet failed of great distinction, nor did 

 Sweepstakes himself get extreme speed. This was a bay horse, 

 foaled 1867, by Hambletonian out of Emma Mills, that also pro- 

 duced Mott's Independent, by Seely's American Star. He was 

 bred by the late Harrison Mills, near Goshen, in Orange County, 

 New York, and was never, I believe, trained. Indeed it lias 

 been stated that he never wore harness, and is perhaps the most 

 remarkable example of a strictly undeveloped sire of trotters. 

 The most noted of his get is the bay horse Captain Lyons, 2:17^. 

 Sweepstakes sired thirty-three trotters and two pacers that are 

 standard performers, four sons have produced eight trotters and 

 two pacers, and twenty of his daughters have produced twenty- 

 five trotters and four pacers. 



GOVERNOR SPRAGUE is one of the few horses not descended in 

 the male line from one of the great foundation progenitors, and 

 that yet was a trotter of merit and the founder of a trotting family. 

 His dam, however, was a producing daughter of Hambletonian, 

 and this must be regarded as the probable source of his power, 

 though his sire was a fine trotter for his day. 



Back in the thirties a Frenchman living at Rouse's Point, 

 New York, near the Canadian boundary line, bred a pacing mare 

 to a horsa that was kept in the same stable with Sir Walter, 

 thoroughbred son of Hickory, and the result was the horse 

 known as North American, or the Bullock Horse. It was long 

 claimed that North American was by Sir Walter, but the best 

 authenticated version is given in Wallace's Monthly, for 1880. 

 This was the statement of a Mr. Ladd, said to be a reliable man, who 



