iS32 ALHAMBRA AND MESSENGER DUROC. 



one of the most elevated and useful pursuits that could be honored by 

 a true gentleman and man of refined tastes and ample fortune. He 

 gave a certificate stating that after having sold Alhambra (being a 

 very large breeder) he thought so well of him that in eight months 

 therealfter he repurcloased him for two thousand dollars — four times 

 the price at which he had sold him. He says his trainer failed to keep 

 him steady, but at times he showed almost a two-minute gait. 



While Alhambra was in no respect lacking in true brain balance, it 

 is very clear to my mind that with his short leverage and immense 

 propelling power, it would be a task next to impossible to keep him 

 steady. It was for reasons physical — not those of nerve or tempera- 

 7nent. It was for the same reason that Smuggler requires the 

 immense weight to keep him in true ballast for his prodigious displays 

 — a physical orgaiiism that is not suited for such a rate of speed at the 

 trotting gait. 



Alhambra soon showed a capacity to trot in 2:30, and an organism 

 of muscle and brain power capable of a rate of speed far greater than 

 liis machinery could endure. 



Alhambra has produced some colts that gave great promise of dis- 

 tinction, but like himself are unable to hold out. They at an early 

 age showed an aptitude for trotting, and an organism full of speed and 

 nervous energy, but a physical conformation not sufficient to endure 

 severe training. They had more energy than they could carry, and 

 for this reason came short of the expectations of their breeders in 

 almost every instance. 



Other causes arising from their in-breeding in the Duroc blood, yet 

 to be noticed, have greatly lowered them in popular esteem — their 

 merit was great and attractive, but their deficiency was so much 

 greater that their fame has lost much of the lustre with which they 

 began their career. They were early, precocious and exceedingly 

 promising, but could not endure the amount of work necessary to 

 bring them to a high degree of perfection as great trotters. They 

 seemed to have all the natural elements of a great family, but when 

 subjected to the severe test of hard work and training, they were 

 found to possess a physical organism that could not hold out. There 

 was in their composition an element that could not endure friction 

 without betraying weakness. 



Messenger Duroc, while showing the predominant traits of the cross 

 from which he comes, differs from Alhambra in several particulars, 

 both as a trotter and a breeder, but in the traits above referred to, he 



