CHAPTER XXI11. 



MAMBRINO CHIEF AND HIS FAMILY. 



Description and history of Mambrino Chief The pioneer trotting stallion of 

 Kentucky Matched against Pilot Jr. His best sons Mambrino Patchen, 

 his opportunities and family Woodford Mambrino, a notable trotter and 

 sire Princess Mambrino Pilot Other sons of Mambrino Chief. 



MAMBRIXO CHIEF was a dark bay or brown horse, got by 

 Mambrino Paymaster, grandson of imported Messenger, and his 

 dam was a large, coarse mare that was brought from the West in 

 a drove, and absolutely nothing was known of her blood . The 

 theory was once advanced in print that she must have been by 

 Stevens' Messenger Duroc, but I think it was never repeated. 

 The basis of this theory was, that the horse referred to was large 

 and coarse, with a long thigh bone, and as the mare was large and 

 coarse, with a long thigh bone, she must have been a daughter of 

 his. There are some obvious difficulties about accepting this 

 * ''thigh-bone" pedigree. In the first place, the inventor of it 

 never saw either the horse or the mare, and how could he have 

 put his tapeline on their "thigh-bones" and thus ascertained 

 they were of the same length? In the second place, it is not 

 known, nor was it known to the inventor, that the horse ever had 

 been within three hundred miles of the dam of this "daughter" 

 of his. It is not much wonder that the "horse business" is 

 hardly considered reputable when an educated man will advance 

 such senseless gabble as the basis of a pedigree. This mare pro- 

 duced another colt called Goliah that developed some speed, but 

 this was not the Goliah that was on the trotting turf. 



Mambrino Chief was bred by Richard Eldridge, of Dutchess 

 County, New York, and was owned by Warren Williams; in the 

 spring of 1851 he passed into the hands of James M. Cockroft 

 and G. T. Williams; was kept two or three seasons in Ulster 

 County; trotted, under the saddle a trial in 2:36; sold to James 

 B. Clay of Kentucky, in the winter of 1854, and then to Gray ^ 



