THE BLUE BULL AND OTHEK MINOR FAMILIES. 357 



Phares' Aratus, out of a fast pacing mare. There is no evidence 

 whatever going to show that Phare's Aratus was a son of Aratus 

 by Director. The type of the family did not indicate the posses- 

 sion of any running blood. Tom Rolfe put four trotters and 

 three pacers, all with fast records, into the 2:30 list, and three 

 of his sons left twenty-nine performers. In the latter years of 

 his life he was sold by Mr. Woodmansee to Mr. Wesley P. Balch, 

 of Boston, and died 1877. 



YOUNG ROLFE was the best son of Tom Rolfe. He was a bay, 

 foaled 1876, and came out of Judith, by Draco, son of Young 

 Merrill, and she out of Lady Balch, by Rising Sun. He was bred 

 by Wesley P. Balch, passed to C. H. Nelson, of Maine, then back 

 to John Sheppard of Boston, and died 1884, when only eight 

 years- old. He was one of the- best horses of his day, as a race 

 horse, and his early death was universally considered a great loss 

 to the breeding interests of the country. He has to his credit 

 nine representative trotters in the 2:30 list. 



NELSON, the great son of Young Rolfe, was bred and owned by 

 C. H. Nelson, Waterville, Maine. He is a bay horse, foaled 1882, 

 and out of Gretchen, the daughter of Gideon, by Hambletonian, 

 10, and she out of the fast trotting mare Kate, by Vermont Black 

 Hawk. This horse Gideon, the son of Hambletonian, was, like his 

 .sire, very strongly inbred to old Messenger, tracing through mares 

 T>y Young Engineer and Young Commander, both grandsons of 

 Messenger, to the William Hunter mare, that was by Messenger 

 himself. When the pedigree of Nelson is compared with the 

 pedigree of Hambletonian, according to the rules of arithmetic, 

 it may be found to contain nearly or quite as much Messenger 

 blood as Hambletonian possessed, but, unfortunately, we know 

 nothing of the trotting capacity of the intervening mares. If 

 we had a "One Eye" and a "Charles Kent Mare" coming next 

 to the William Hunter mare, we would have much greater ex- 

 pectations. But, as it is, when we consider the superlative 

 capacity of Nelson himself, with his record of 2:09, and his nine- 

 teen trotters and seven pacers already to his credit, it is probable 

 he will found a large and valuable family. 



Through his son Blanco, sire of Smuggler, we have another 

 notable line to Irons' Cadmus. Smuggler was in his day the 

 champion trotting stallion, taking a record of 2:15^ when owned 

 T)y Colonel Russell, of Boston, and driven by Charles Marvin, 

 who after long and painstaking efforts converted him from his 



