TROTTERS OF BELLFOUNDER BLOOD. 205 



the sons of Hambletonian will in breeding display the richer qualities 

 ■of the Bellfounder blood in greater force than it was displayed by him. 

 The only trotters he left from mares of that blood that attained any 

 distinction are Gazelle, and James Howell Jr., and their dams were 

 by Harry Clay. His sons have been more successful in the same 

 union thus far than he was. He has left several entire sons who 

 ■were strono- in the blood of Bellfounder, but not one of them has vet 

 produced a 2:30 trotter; Rysdyk's Bellfounder, Manhattan, Idol, Elec- 

 tioneer — not one son of Hambletonian and a mare of Bellfounder 

 blood has yet produced a 2:30 trotter; and only two of his own pro- 

 duce from such mares have trotted in 2:30, excepting, of course, 

 daughters of his own sons. On the other hand. Volunteer has pro- 

 duced Bodine 2:19i, St. Julien 2:22^, Goldsmith's Abdallah 2:30, 

 his grandam being a mare -of Bellfounder blood, and he has pro- 

 duced Hickory, 2:30. Messenger Duroc has produced Elaine, 2:28, 

 three years old; Hogarth, 2:26, four years old; and Prospero, 2:20. 

 Jay Gould has produced King Philip, 2:21; all from mares of that 

 Mood. Belmont, by Alexander's Abdallah, was from a mare of Bell- 

 founder blood, and he has produced three trotters with records respec- 

 tively 2:23^, 2:24-2-, and 2:29. And one of the most promising two- 

 j-ear-olds by Almont was from a mare of similar composition. The 

 value and true riclmess of the blood is now coming out in the more 

 remote descendants, and that which has sustained so much of odium 

 s now returning to the flood tide of popularity. To-day it is tlie 

 ascending current in popular estimation. By its union Avith other 

 bloods, and especially with what would seem to be its kindred blood 

 in the Messenger family, it has eliminated from itself the gross 

 and cold elements which came from some inferior English road 

 stock, and has also by the alliance thrown into the back ground the 

 Arab tendencies of the Messenger strains, and the fusion thus pre- 

 sented now displays its trotting quality and its prepotent breeding 

 capacities in far greater degree than they were seen in the first or 

 original combinations. The dam of Florida having so much of this 

 blended Messenger and Bellfounder character has presented in Florida 

 •an exact medium or intermediate between Hambletonian and Volun- 

 teer. He is much like each. 



Volunteer has been acknowledged by all to show more in his out- 

 ward form and appearance of the Bellfounder type than any of the 

 ■older sons of Hambletonian, which is, perhaps, owing to the fact that 

 in the composition of his dam those conditions appeared that were 



