42 CAUSES OF THE SUPERIORITY OF AMERICAN TROTTERS. 



cessful were they, that the English importers considered him an imposition. 

 Thus the matter stood for a year or more. When Wheelan arrived in Eng 

 land, he recognized the horse, and learned the particulars of his purchase 

 and subsequent trials there. By his advice the horse was nominated in a 

 stake at Manchester (we believe) with four or five of the best trotters in 

 England, he (Wheelan) engaging to train and ride him. When the., horses 

 came upon the ground, the odds were 4 and 5 to 1 against Alexander, who 

 won by nearly a quarter of a mile ! Wheelan says he took the track at 

 starting, and widened the gap at his ease — that near the finish, being sur- 

 prised that no horse was anywhere near him, as his own had not yet made 

 a stroke, he got frightened, thinking some one might outbrush him — that he 

 put Alexander up to his work, and finally won by an immense way, no 

 horse, literally, getting to the head of the quarter stretch, as he came out 

 at the winning stand ! The importers of Alexander, at any rate, were so 

 surprised aiiJ delighted at his performance, that they presented Wheelan 

 with a magnificent gold timing- watch, and other valuable presents, and sent 

 Messrs. 0. and B. a superb service of plate, which may be seen at any 

 time at their establishment in Maiden Lane." 



From whence does this superiority of the American trotters 

 spring ? Is it from blood ? This would seem to he disproved 

 from the facts already shown. The American trotter belongs 

 to no particular breed or blood. Many of our celebrated trotters 

 have partaken more or less deeply of the blood of the English 

 race-horse. The Abdallah and Messenger family are consider- 

 ably more than half-bloods — the dams of these horses being 

 also of Messenger blood. Unless it is shown that the unknown 

 or common blood which they possess, has been the source of 

 their siqieriority as trotters, then it is certain that England 

 possesses as good materials as ourselves, so far as blood is con- 

 cerned, for breeding trotters. The former has never, so far as 

 we are aware, been claimed, and there is not a reasonable doubt 

 that England does possess all the requisite materials to equal us. 

 The diilereiice has been occasioned by management, training, 

 and attentiou to this definite object. On this subject, we quote 

 the following just and highly spirited remarks from a disser- 

 tation on American Trotting Horses^ by that talented but ilU 

 rewarded veteran agricultural writer, Hon. J. S. Skinner :- — 



" According to the theory here maintained, the great number of trotters 

 in America that can go, as before said, their mile under three minutes, and 

 there are many who do it under 2m. 40.s., and even in some cases under 

 1in. 305., — as for instance in the case of Ripton and Confidence, whose per- 

 formances have given so much gratification to sportsmen, is to be explained 

 ,x\ tlie same way that we account for the great number of siiperb hunters 

 that are admitted to abound in England above all countries, not excepting 

 our own. There, in every county in the Kingdom, there are organized 

 " Hunts,'" with their whippers-in, and huntsmen, and earth-stoppers, and 



* See prefatory chapter to the American edition of Youatt on the 

 ^lorse. Lea tk Blanchard : Philadelphia, 1849. 



