246 STAK-HAMBLETONIANS. 



We are still further enlightened by the information that American 

 Star was descended from Duroc and Henry and Sir Archy and Dio- 

 med, with one cross of Messenger, but no one has attempted to ex- 

 plain the operations of these bloods. Nothing has been so common 

 of recent years as to see lengthy laudations of pedigrees that con- 

 tained many crosses of Diomed, and yet no one has attempted to show 

 why the blood of Diomed has any adaptation to the pui-poses of the 

 trotting horse; and in the two instances given of Duroc, a son, and 

 Henry, a double grandson, no one has pointed out the special fitness 

 or unfitness of either of these bloods resting on any definite quality 

 which could in any way adapt either one to promoting excellence in 

 the trotter. An examination of the two will reveal the fact, that 

 although of thie family of Diomed, the grandson of King Herod, they 

 were each as different in their qualities as were the little planet 

 Venus that shines so brightly, and the great comet that appeared in 

 our sky a few years ago. It is time we should cease this jargon of 

 names, and look beyond the list of animals, and into the lines and 

 qualities of the blood that enters into the composition of an animal. 



Hambletonian achieved much of his fame from the produce of Star 

 mares. He had access to many of them, as their sire had spent most 

 of his life in the same county, and as a family they were already noted 

 for the high trotting qualities which have since distinguished the union 

 of the two bloods. The combination that gave us Dexter, Jay Gould, 

 Socrates, Huntress, Startle, Dictator, Gauntlet, Wilkins Micawber, 

 Aberdeen, and a long list of other celebrities, all possessed of great 

 speed, bottom and game to the very last, is one well worthy of the 

 most careful study. 



Hiffh breeding is the first characteristic that strikes the beholder. 

 No horse can show a more genuine thoroughbred type to-day than 

 Dexter. In point of temper, unflinching courage and game to the 

 point of desperation, no thoroughbred family can surpass them. For 

 ready trotting action, true poise of body, steady stroke, and all that 

 makes up purity of gait in a trotter, they stand as a family without a 

 rival or a peer. In point of form, they are a wide departure from that 

 of Hambletonian and the average of his family. They are smaller 

 and finer in form. The Abdallah features of the head are displaced 

 by one of a thoroughbred caste, full of fire and beauty. The Bell- 

 founder and Messenger rump, straight and almost level, and the heavy 

 hindquarter, with its elevated croup and whirlbone, have given way to 

 a rounded drooping rump, tu.il much lower set on, and dropping off 



