CHAPTER X 



THE FOUNDATION HORSES, IMPORTED MESSENGER 

 AND JUSTIN MORGAN 



THE two stallions, Messenger and Justin Mor- 

 gan, to which we remotely trace so many trotters 

 of the present day, had lived far beyond their 

 prime before the dream of a mile in three min- 

 utes was realized. Messenger died in 1808, aged 

 28 years, and Justin Morgan in 1821, aged 32 

 years. It was in 1818 that an iron-gray gelding 

 of 1 6 hands established a record of three minutes 

 at Jamaica, Long Island. The match for #1000 

 grew out of a discussion at a jockey club dinner 

 that a horse could not be produced to trot a mile 

 in three minutes or less, and Boston Blue was 

 named at the post and won cleverly. He was a 

 horse of unknown blood, and the renown he gained 

 by the performance caused him to be shipped to 

 England. In the early days of the United States 

 the saddle horse was more used than the light- 

 harness horse, on account of the poor condition 

 of the roads. The trotting gait in harness was 



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