454 DESCENDANTS OF MAMBRINO CHIEF. 



"With such, precocity in their ofFs]iriiio- is a trait of character. His colts 

 from such mares all came trotters at birth, and in colthood they excelled, 

 but the more deeply-rooted blood qualities of Diomed and the racing 

 thoroughbred eventually asserted their sway, and when the horse came 

 -to full age, and liis form and capacity called for a higher degree of 

 speed, his galloping instincts asserted their predominance, and he in 

 great degree ceased to be a trotter. 



Such, I have no doubt, was the real philosophy of this apparent 

 phenomenon, Mambrino Patchen had large elements of Diomed 

 'blood — he had other elements of racing blood. He had, withal, power- 

 ful trotting instinct and he implanted it very clearly, but the galloping 

 instinct of the racer, and particularly those coming through Diomed, 

 finally came out ahead. 



His trotters, whose trotting character seemed to be limited to baby- 

 hood, were those bred from mares of strong racing composition. 

 It was not thus with those whose trotting quality was reinforced in 

 the blood or habits of the dams. Take his colts from such mares as 

 the dam of Mambrino Kate, Mambrino Boy, Lad}^ Patchen and The 

 •Jewess, and they showed no inclination to stop on the confines of 

 ■colthood. Lady Stout came from a highly bred mare that was not 

 thoroughbred, yet she had so much of that blood that her case 

 proves the principle I have here laid down. She may be a trotter 

 which will continue to full age and improve and last like Kate and 

 like Lady Thorn, but I think it doubtful, and she has several brothers 

 and sisters, and the}' prove the correctness of what I say of such lines 

 ■of blood. Stallions that are strong in racing blood, and particularly 

 •that of Diomed, will not make trotting sires. 



The brothers of Lady Stout will not, but I should prize a brother 



of Mambrino Kate, and this illustrates Mambrino Patchen as a sire 



perfectly. His produce from these high bred mares are so blood-like 



and attractive, and so promising in early colthood, as to induce many 



to send him such mares and to purchase colts thus bred, and their 



■disap})ointment leads them afterward to condemn the sire as a failure 



and a deception. Whereas the error was in just this, that he did 



Avhat no other stallion in the world could have done, he showed great 



■quality and early promise in his jiroduce from a class of mares which 



])()ssessed no sort of adaptation to the purposes of the trotting gait. 



His real greatness, however, as a sire, is not to be measured by the 



failure of the produce of such mares. He has shown his qualities in 



".the produce of others and of all classes in such immense numbers, 



