IJIPOKTED MESSENGER. 115 



scion thus engrafted, and yet no one in the light of history can ques- 

 tion the fact that the blood of Sampson has been full of adaptation to 

 the trotting gait — in coach horses, road horses, and the great trotters 

 of the turf in every generation since his day. Let it be borne in mind 

 that Useful Cub, the famous English trotter, that trotted seventeen 

 miles in less than an hour, was descended from Sampson, the same 

 number of removes as our imported Messenger, his dam being by a 

 son of Sampson. When I come to speak of imported Bellfounder, I 

 shall recur to this fact, and we shall probably see to what further ex- 

 tent the blood of Sampson, through this channel, has influenced the 

 stock of our American roadster. 



I have already called attention to the credit that has been given to 

 Mambrino for the influence his blood has had upon the stock of 

 English coach horses. All cotemporaries agree that they showed a 

 romarkalile adaptation to the trotting gait, and it has been transmitted 

 to us, that Lord Grosvenor, the owner of Mambrino, ofi"ered to match 

 Mambrino to trot fourteen miles in an hour, for one thousand guineas. 

 This, for an untrained horse and one not used for harness purjDOses, 

 would be regarded as fast going. Mambrino was probably more of a 

 trotter than Messenger, and would in all probability have surpassed 

 him as the progenitor or founder of a race of roadsters. He was one 

 degree closer to the coach horse, and less modified in form and instinct 

 by the pure Arab blood. The dam of Messenger was strongly in-bred 

 in the purest strains known in England. Any one who has closely 

 studied the crossing of the trotter with the blood of Diomed, Sir 

 Archy, and other pure-bred horses in this country, has seen that the 

 effect is a gradual shortening of the line from hip to hock, and also a 

 lengthening of the distance from the hock to the ground — longer rear 

 cannons. This is the galloping leverage; the reverse is the trotting 

 leverage. If we could find a coarse and in-bred descendant of Mam- 

 brino in England, and import him to cross on our trotting stock, it 

 would be the only resort to any form of racing blood that I could 

 suggest or advocate. 



Little is known with regard to the trotting capacity of Messenger, 

 as he was never used for any purpose that would afford opportunity 

 for the exercise of his abilities in that direction. Of his immediate 

 and remote descendants I shall speak further along. . 



Messenger was bred by John Pratt, Esq., of Newmarket, England, 

 and was owned during his racing career by Mr. Bullock. He seems 

 to have been imported into this country by a Mr. Benger, arriving at 



