304 CLAY HAMBLETONIANS. 



then fcnir-3'car-old form, in which he had, wiih xevy Utile handlinfr, 

 shown a mile in 2:29:^. In doing so, I brought upon myself no little 

 g-ood-natured banter very justly bestowed, yet by good fortune the colt 

 has since supported me in the departure, by making a first-class five- 

 year-old record, in his first and only race, at the Grand Circuit Meet- 

 ing of 1877, at Cleveland, Ohio, where he scored a second heat in 

 2;22t, and a third in 2:22|^, which, for the age, is directly among the very 

 best of records. This performance is a heavy gain for Peacemaker 

 as a sire, and shows that his possibilities under favorable circumstances 

 are very great; probably no sire of his age has achieved a five-year- 

 old of equal record. Unfortunately a waiting policy has been chosen 

 by those who have controlled most of his get, and while several have 

 had credit for much speed, they have been held back from the turf. 

 The late Mr. Z. B. Van Wyck, of Flatbush, contemplated putting two 

 of them forward this coming season. One was a young mare out of 

 his favorite brood-mare, Nellie Moore, credited with a marvelous tui'n 

 of speed, but not very steady; the other a seven-year-old gelding out 

 of a mare by Iron Duke, son of Cassius M. Clay, that he paid me the 

 compliment to name Comstock. His late owner assured me that, 

 without professional aid, his boys had quickly developed him to a 

 trial in 2:28 over a slow track, and he held great expectations of him 

 for the year 1878. I do not altogether fancy his make-up, and am 

 free to say that, while I know of few as comparatively green that have 

 so much speed at command as he shows in brushes, I coidd select, 

 from among the progeny of the same sire, others from whom I should 

 expect greater ultimate results." 



The record of this gelding. Midnight, stands at 2:22:|^, as stated in 

 the foregoing. In looking over the catalogue of Mr. Nodine, I noticed 

 several blacks in the list of the produce of Peacemaker, which attest 

 his kinship to the produce of George Wilkes in the Clay blood. 



Peacemaker has not received a large patronage, but the impression 

 generally prevails among horsemen and breeders in the East that he 

 is a horse of great superiority, and that he is yet likely to repeat the 

 high mark he has set in his first scion in the 2:30 list. 



It is stated that he has been placed in the custody of Gen. Tracy, 

 at Owego, for a probable term of several years, and the high reputa- 

 tion he has already achieved will be likely to follow him into this new 

 locality, where oi)portunities for reaching such valuable sires have not 

 been so good, and we may look to the future of his career in the 

 expectation of results not less cheery than the dawn which has for a 

 paradox been heralded by the darkness of Midnight. 



