174 HAMBLETONIAN. 



and very rarely has any person other than his owner had opportunity 

 ■ to know or form any approximate idea of his powers as a trotter. 

 Notwithstanding this, those who knew the horse best, have at all times 

 entertained the opinion that, as a trotter, he had a capacity that was of 

 the highest order, and far superior to either of his immediate or any 

 of his more remote ancestors. 



He was exhibited by his owner, as a three-year-old, at the New York 

 State Fair. The other most noted son of Abdallah — Roe's Abdallah 

 Chief — was also exhibited, and taken to the Union Course, on Long 

 Island, for a trial of speed — Hambletonian, the three-year-old, against 

 the four- year-old in-bred, and, I may say, richly-bred son of the same 

 sire. The trial resulted in favor of Hambletonian — the time beino^ 

 about 3:03. Abdallah Chief being given another trial alone, made 

 his mile in 2:55|-. Hambletonian then went a second trial, this time 

 alone, and made it in 2 :48. This is the account said to have been 

 given by the owners of both horses, and is regarded as authentic. 



In his morning exercise ii:i later years, say at the age of fifteen, he 

 has been driven by a gentleman well known to the public, in about 

 2:40; and this gentleman, who has had better opportunities of knowing 

 the trotting capacity of Hambletonian than any other person now living, 

 assures me that he was a horse of great speed and power, and capable 

 of going very fast, even as we regard speed in our day. It must be 

 conceded that a horse that could trot in 2:48 at three years old, in the 

 hands of a man having fixed and positive opinions against training or 

 trotting a young stallion, and that could, after a life of severe and 

 •excessive stallion-service, and without special training for the purpose, 

 show a mile in 2 :45, or even trot at a 2 :40 gait at the age of fifteen years, 

 is in all respects an extraordinary animal, even in our day. And such^ 

 truly ^ was Hambletonian. 



And how are we to regard him in the light of results of his produce 

 in the various combinations with the blood of the prominent families 

 of our day and those anterior to him? The Messenger and Abdallah 

 trotters of the period cotemporary with Abdallah, were 2:40 horses 

 — usually trotting in the forties, some in the thirties. The Bellfounders 

 were about the same. The Stars, a more recent family, with the 

 advance of skill in training, were also about a 2:40 family; some of 

 the best of them trotting^ in the thirties, but not manv. 



The trottins: horse of to-dav — the combined Abdallah-Bellfounder 

 — is a horse of the teens: Goldsmith Maid, 2:14; Dexter, 2:17^; 

 01oster,2:17; Bodine, 2:19i; St. Julien, 2:22^; Gazelle, 2:21; Fuller- 



