CHAPTER XXV. 



AMERICAN STAR, PILOT, CHAMPION, AND NORMAN FAMILIES. 



Seely's American Star His fictitious pedigree Breeding really unknown A 

 trotter of some merit His stud career His daughters noted brood mares 

 Conklin's American Star Old Pacing Pilot History and probable origin 

 Pilot Jr. Pedigree Training and races Prepotency Family statistics 

 summarized Grinnell's Champion, son of Almack His sons and perform- 

 ing descendants Alexander's Norman and his sire, the Morse Horse 

 Swigert and Blackwood. 



OF all the hundreds of difficult and obscure pedigrees that I 

 have undertaken to investigate and straighten out, I have given 

 more time, labor and money to that of Seely's American Star 

 than to any other horse. In 1867 I got his pedigree from a gen- 

 tleman in Morris County, New Jersey, who claimed to have bred 

 him, and this pedigree and the history accompanying it embracing 

 several details that were interesting, I published it, at full 

 length, in the Spirit of the Times. This represented the horse 

 as a light chestnut about fifteen hands high, with star and snip 

 and two white hind feet. He was represented to have been foaled 

 1837 and to be by a horse called American Star, son of Cock of 

 the Rock, by Duroc; dam Sally Slouch by Henry, the race horse; 

 grandam by imported Messenger. As there was no horse of that 

 name, so far as I knew, by Cock of the Rock, but as there was 

 one of that name by Duroc, I wrote to know whether this was not. 

 the breeding of the sire, and the answer came that it might have 

 been so. 



After the appearance of this pedigree in the "Register" I was 

 greatly surprised that nobody believed it, and the more a horse- 

 man knew of the horse and his history the more positive he was 

 that it was a mistake. Several years passed away, and while I 

 kept insisting it was true, the unbelievers became more persistent 

 than ever in their opposition to the pedigree. The concensus of 

 the opinions of horsemen seemed to be that the horse was part 

 "Canuck," and this was the view held by his owner, Edmund 

 Seely, as long as he lived. At last the following story came to- 



