PREFACE- 



THE favor with which this compilation has been received, 

 and especially the plan on which it is constructed have afford- 

 ed the compiler the highest gratification. Although it was im- 

 practicable to present the manuscript to the examination of 

 many, the few very intelligent gentlemen of the press and others 

 who gave it their approval and indorsement, have greatly in- 

 creased the confidence of the compiler and publishers in pre- 

 senting it to the horsemen and breeders of the country. 

 . Since the numbering of the horses was completed, the pedi- 

 grees of about sixty animals have been extended that should 

 have appeared in the first volume; but as the system prohibits 

 their subsequent introduction in the first except in the Appen- 

 dix- they will appear in the second volume, as well as all others 

 that may in the mean time lay just claim to the requisite standard 

 of blood. 



The unfortunate meagerness of reliable published data on the 

 blood of the trotting-horse has been, in a measure, compensated 

 by the personal labors of the compiler for several months among 

 the horsemen of New York, and the great centers of breeding 

 and training. 



By these efforts he has been able to trace out and authenti- 

 cate many most valuable facts not heretofore known to the 

 public, especially as to the true lineage of many of the pro- 

 genitors of the present generation of trotters. And, although 

 the field has been but partially explored, the conviction is forced 

 upon his mind that the road stock of Long Island and the east- 

 ern counties of New York and New Jersey, as well as a part 

 of Vermont, is far richer in the blood of Messenger, Grey High- 

 lander, Expedition, and other imported and thoroughbred horses 

 than the breeders of this day are aware of. It would be impos- 



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