A TROTTING SIRE. 237 



but its hio-liest excellences are shown when the Duroc force is 

 remote. 



In this stallion Messenger Duroc, laying out of view the one bad 

 feature of this blood, the good qualities of the union are exhibited 

 in a degree never yet reached in any horse we have seen on this 

 continent. The various unions of which he was constituted were 

 somewhat removed from the strictly thoroughbred, which was in his 

 favor. Road elements were early introduced, and at all stages formed 

 a larare share of his constituents. This had the effect on both the 

 Duroc and the Messenger to present these strains with their trotting 

 tendencies in a constant state of progressive development, and the 

 opposite or galloping tendencies of two bloods originally thoroughbred 

 constantly falling into the retrograde. In this manner, while in a high 

 state of development, these Duroc-Messenger strains united with the 

 Bellfounder- Messenger from Hambletonian, and the result, as seen in 

 Messenger Duroc, must be acknowledged as the highest exhibition 

 of royal trotting blood ever seen in this country. This must be clearly 

 conceded. The three elements are there combined in that horse in 

 a degree of excellence — trotting quality only being considered — - 

 nowhere yet approached in any other stallion. Moreover, the respec- 

 tive channels through which these several unions approached were 

 pre-eminently the best that could have been selected. The dam of 

 Messenger Duroc was a daughter of Abdallah Chief, a son of 

 Abdallah. 



If the Duroc strains in this pedigree had been limited to those 

 contained in Abdallah Chief, and the Messenger crosses in the back- 

 ground had still been maintained, the superiority of the horse would 

 have been unquestionable. 



As a sire it is apparent that the Duroc blood is in masterly suprem- 

 acy, but, as above premised, laying aside the unfavorable aspects of 

 this element, and looking only to the trotting qualities displayed, it 

 must be acknowledged by all that he is an extraordinary breeder. 

 He started off not as the favorite in the stud where he is owned, but 

 he soon left the favorite in the distance. His list includes Prospero, 

 2:20, and eight heats in 2:30 or better; Hogarth, a four-year-old, 

 2:26, and three heats in 2:30 or better; Elaine, a filly three years old, 

 with record of 2:28, one second better than lliady Stout, the Kentucky 

 favorite; Reform, Dame Trot, Mansfield, Helen Russell, McClure, 

 Miranda, Marengo and Philosopher, with others whose names I have 

 not at hand — no list or materials for this sketch having been supplied 



