BABY TROTTERS. 45B: 



ship in a family of roj-al lines. Mambrino Patchen is a strong' but 

 very finely formed horse, in every part. He has a large head as any 

 horse of his size should have, but not a coarse one. There is not 

 a coarse or homely point about him. He has a proud carriage, a 

 splendid form, fine crest, clean in the throat, a set of limbs and hocks- 

 equal to the best; mane and tail full and long, and the latter always 

 carried at such an elevation as to attract attention as a family mark^ 

 No man ever saw a son or daughter of Mambrino Patchen that did- 

 not carry the tail at a handsome elevation. Rival owners (the best 

 horse in the world always has his rivals) often insinuated that artificial 

 means were employed to set the tails up for display. But the 

 family have it, and what comes by nature leaves no room for art — and 

 never a family carried a banner more handsomely. 



The trotting quality of the family of Mambrino Chief seems to have 

 culminated in this son and in his produce. His colts seem to be- 

 trotters from the day of their birth. I have seen young^ things at the 

 side of their mothers that showed the highest degree of trotting- 

 quality ever seen in any ages. 



The colt exhibitions at Forest Park mark an epoch in horse breeding 

 in the United States which has given type and character to the 

 business of raising trotters, not only in the Blue Grass region of Ken- 

 tucky but throughout the Union. 



The " Baby Trotters," as they have been tenned, were a race and a 

 rank worthy of a special cognomen. It may be taken as a fact 

 beyond doubt or dispute, that in the early display of trotting excel- 

 lence, even in the most infantile periods of colthood, the progeny of 

 Mambrino Patchen surpassed any stallion we have yet seen. The 

 Hurst filly, while a sucking foal by its mother's side, was led and' 

 trotted a half mile at the rate of 3:40. The full sister of Lady Stout 

 showed nearly the same. It is claimed that they were only trotters 

 in babyhood — that they did not hold out when they came to full age- 

 — that is, that while they were greatly distinguished in their very 

 babyhood, they were not equally distinguished when full grown and 

 in later years. That was in reality true, but it came from causes not 

 heretofore explained and not from any peculiarities of the sire. Their 

 earliness came from the sire, their retrograde when aged came from 

 other sources, of which the sire had a i^art. 



It was the fortune of Mambrino Patchen to be composed of ele- 

 ments which made him an effective or rather an impressive sire in the- 

 matter of trotting quality with thoroughbred and highly bred mares- 



