136 ORIGINAL SOURCES OF TROTTING BLOOD. 



from clanorhtors of Sayer's Harry Clay and others of Bellfounder blood, 

 and the in-bred Messenger sire, came Bodine, St. Julian, Gazelle, 

 Prospero, Reform, Dame Trot, Hogarth, Elaine, and King Philip. 



Lady Alport by Mambrino, dam by Tippoo Saib, second dam by 

 Messenger, while too closely in-bred, was yet regarded as a superior 

 mare. She had two sons by Bellfounder, one of which was his best 

 son probably — Brown's or Ohio Bellfounder — and while as to form he 

 was mainly Bellfounder, he was not a trotter of distinction, and has 

 scarcely left a trace of his blood in the trotting stock of this country. 

 And as was this so were all the sons of Bellfounder — their success was 

 not sufficient to have perpetuated his name. That a grandson of the 

 Norfolk trotter produced Conqueror, the hundred-mile trotter, does 

 not detract from the correctness of the view here expressed, since the 

 dam of that great performer was a daughter of Bellfounder himself. 



As before expressed, Bellfounder was not as a sire so impressive as 

 to overcome certain traits of the Messenger blood, while in other 

 respects he showed his superiority in marked degree. In all that per- 

 tained to color, form and external marks he seemed to stamp his image 

 on his produce with wonderful force and uniformity — but in the 

 essential and controlling instincts of the trotter, except a small ])ut 

 brilliant list, he failed. He received mares that were of the richest 

 Messenger blood — but the produce, except the Charles Kent mare and 

 Conqueror, as trotters, were not equal to either of the parents. 

 They each seemed to counteract the trotting qualities of the other, a 

 thino- that often occurs in breeding. 



While Bellfounder and his sons were not impressive sires in regard 

 to this matter of trotting quality, it must also be conceded that his 

 grandson Hambletonian, great stallion as he was, was quite variable, 

 and failed in more cases than he succeeded. His uncertainty origi- 

 nated in the uncertain and unknown elements that united in Bell- 

 founder. The latter was made up of diverse elements, having some- 

 thing kindred to the Messenger but much that was entirely foreign, 

 and the blood sometimes worked in one direction and often in another 

 or many, as is the case when there is a conflict between blood forces 

 in breeding from cross-bred animals. Although a distant remove from 

 the SuflFolk Punch cart horse he most likely had an inheritance from 

 that quality which now and then asserted itself. It must be conceded 

 that apparent traces of this cross are frequently discernible in the 

 descendants of Hambletonian. Breeding is a crucible in which the 

 alloy often comes out in one place and the pure jjold in another, while 

 they sometimes blend. 



