SEELY'S AMERICAN STAR. 257 



in the generally reduced size of the animal, the sloping rump, very 

 muscular quarters and thighs, and defective legs and feet, many of 

 them being over at the knees, and exceedingly shaky and unsound 

 below the knee and hock, and the frequency of white faces and white 

 legs. In all these particulars it must be apparent that the uniformity 

 of color and markings which distinguish the Bellfounder blood has 

 been greatly overcome by this cross, and that the unrivaled soundness 

 of feet and legs of the Messenger, Bellfounder and Abdallah families 

 has encountered a serious and deeply-seated blood defect in the Star 

 family, which their own uniform and marvelous superiority has not 

 been able to overcome. 



Furthermore, the straight rump and elevated croup has been com- 

 pelled to yield, in great part, to one that droops and carries the seat 

 of power, in a greatly concentrated form, to a point lower down on 

 the haunches and nearer to the hocks. From what source did Ameri- 

 can Star obtain qualities so marked, so positive and so powerful as to 

 overcome so much of the form and vital forces of the staunchest fam- 

 ily that ever trod the soil of the American continent? 



Seelv's American Star was foaled in 1837, and lived to the ase of 

 24 years. He was by Stockholm's American Star (a son of Duroc), a 

 horse that, we are told, was foaled in 1822, and owned and run as a 

 race-horse, and in 1836, at the age of 14 years, produced Seely's 

 American Star. He left no other produce to distinguish him, and left 

 no other traces of the very remarkable qualities which have distin- 

 guished the second Star and all of his descendants to the present day. 

 We must, therefore, look to the dam of Seely's American Star. She 

 was the mare known as Sally Slouch, by Henry, and her dam waa 

 by imported Messenger. Of this mare we have no other information 

 than that furnished by the two lines of blood from which she came. 

 Her sire was the very noted champion of the South, in 1823, that ran 

 against American Eclipse, on Long Island, the most memorable race 

 of American turf history. American Eclipse, it will be remembered, 

 was a large horse, 15 hands 2 to 3 inches in height, and of great 

 power and substance — a son of Duroc, and a grandson of Messenger — 

 and was matched by the champions of the Northern running turf 

 against anything the Virginia or Southern gentlemen could bring 

 against him. They brought Henry, son of the great Sir Archy, dam 

 by Diomed. If Sir Archy was by Diomed, Henry would be a 

 double grandson of imported Diomed. Diomed was sire of Duroo; 

 but like parentage does not always make like blood or like descend- 



