432 MAMBRINO CHIEF. 



But there is one more evidence equally convincing and far more 

 agreeable to present, and of far greater value and more attractive 

 when presented. 



The blood of Duroc, while it was tainted and was infectious in its 

 tendency, and was certainly injurious if intensified by close and con- 

 tinued in-breeding, was in other respects one of great value. .When it 

 was properly supported and renovated by judicious outcrosses, it was 

 not necessarily an unsound or contaminating agency, and, as allied with 

 the blood of Messenger, it was an important trotting element. The 

 blood of imported Messenger was crossed with that of several other 

 thoroughbreds and part-bred animals, notably with that of Trustee 

 and Expedition, both imported horses, and with other sons of Diomed.^ 

 That of Duroc was also crossed with the blood of other thoroughbred 

 and trotting strains; but nowhere was there a union of any of these 

 elements that produced a trotting type so marked and lasting in its 

 peculiarities as that of Duroc and Messenger. I have before stated 

 clearly that I do not believe there was one particle of trotting ten- 

 dency in the blood of any of the Diomed family; and I am confirmed 

 in this opinion by the observation of those who lived in the day of 

 his sons and early descendants. Certainly I can not credit Duroc 

 with any such tendency, or with any other element of a trotter than 

 a conformation of thigh and hindquarter peculiar to himself, and 

 which had a tendency to develop and increase in his descendants,, 

 especially when in-bred, that greatly adapted them to the trotting 

 gait; but I call the attention of those who deny the magical trotting 

 qualities of the Messenger blood to the fact, that while Duroc was 

 thus lacking in trotting tendencies in himself, his blood, in union with 

 that of imported Messenger, constituted royal trotting blood of the 

 highest quality we have ever seen on this continent. And it was so 

 marked and noted in its own type and character as to stand by itself 

 and give form and character to all the subsequent elements into which 

 it has entered. 



I have shown in Chapter V, that the dam of Duroc was by Grey 

 Diomed, a son of imported Medley, and that he was a son of Gim- 

 crack, a horse foaled in England in 17G0; like Duroc, a horse de- 

 scribed as having a long and iwweiful thigh^ with hocks loell let 

 down. It is also worthy of note that the Medley cross has always 

 ranked as a good one in our trotting families. I have no doubt that 

 in "greater or less degree the Medley family showed this marked 

 peculiarity of Gimcrack and Diomed, although they have possessed 



