364 THE ROYAL GEORGES. 



Gimcrack. He was a horse foaled 1760. He was a very successful 

 race horse, and was not beaten until he was six years old and not 

 often then until much older. He ran a race of twenty-two and a half 

 miles when he was six years old and continued on the turf until he 

 was eleven years old. He was the sire of imported Medley, the sire 

 of Grey Diomed, and the Medley cross has always been esteemed an 

 excellent cross in a trotter. 



This being established, if I am asked as to the eflFect of the blood 

 of Harris' Hambletonian on the family, in case it is ascertained that 

 the dam of Royal George was daughter of the Green Mountain sire, 

 I answer, that it may be the cause of an augmentation of the intense 

 trotting quality of the family and of the impressiveness of the 

 stallions as sires, but that its influence on the long thigh and the gait 

 is no greater than that of Abdallah and Hambletonian on the pro- 

 duce of Star mares — none at all. This Gimcrack or Duroc thigh, 

 once planted, will grow. I have found that to be an axiom in 

 horse breeding, and where the long thigh is, you will have the wide- 

 spreading gait, and where the peculiar conformation of the American 

 Star family exists, you will find the leg swinging as it were from the 

 hip, not appearing to bend, but passing around at the side and reach- 

 ing far forward. I observe recently one clever writer, whom I like 

 very much, asks: " Who ever saw a Star mare that did not trot wide 

 behind?" or, some such inquiry. Very true, but who ever saw a 

 Star mare, or the son of one, except Jay Gould, that had a short 

 thigh? But I have discussed that question elsewhere. 



A matter worthy of observation may be suggested here. I have 

 shown that in the blood of Diomed no trotting quality whatever 

 existed, and that in Duroc the only element of adaptation was found 

 in that form or physical conformation that made him a suitable scion 

 upon which to engraft trotting inclinations; and further, that our best 

 results in the Duroc-Messeno-er crosses were to be realized when we 

 had advanced the furthest from Duroc and again came back to Mes- 

 senger — that the Duroc factor was a valuable one, but it was most 

 valuable when it had become closely allied to and deeply infused with 

 Messenger blood and traits. The very opposite observation applies, 

 and for good reason, to the Messenger-Gimcrack blood, as found in 

 Ogden's Messenger. 



In the Duroc-Messenger, the union came from Duroc himself and 

 thd daughters of Messenger — Duroc was relatively the stronger 

 force; but in the other union it was Messenger himself and the dam 

 of Gimcrack descent. I have all the while steadily taught that the 



