VOLTAIEE. 495 



dency toward a retrograde of trotting quality, and that it was neces- 

 sary to resort to some of our well known and tried crosses to reinforce 

 the trotting quality of such families. 



In this stallion Voltaire we find no Abdallah and no Bellfounder 

 blood, but a horse of commanding size, of fine form; stamina and 

 endurance in the highest degree; courage and tractability which noth- 

 ing can daunt or disconcert; and a trotting impulse so natural, so 

 absorbing, so powerful, that he will trot through three consecutive 

 heats in a race close to 2:20, without a single skip or break. With 

 such an organism, where is the limit to his capacity? How fast can 

 he be made to go? That is a problem for those who go against, rather 

 than those who go with him. To what does he owe his greatness? is 

 the question of value and interest to us, as students in the school of 

 breeding trotters. 



I answer the question, that he owes it to two important elements, 

 both of which have been reached as we have reached him — by breed- 

 ing processes. Withdraw either of these and his greatness is impaired. 

 Commencing at the last first — in his sire we have successfully com- 

 bined the blood of Pilot, the pacer, the Kanuck, for such he was, 

 with that of the highly bred race horse of pure Arab descent, in 

 such manner as to give complete and perfect harmony; the gallop- 

 ing instincts of the racer are completely subordinated to the trotting 

 impulses of the roadster. Secondly, another element is attained 

 in the union of the blood of Duroc and of Messenger in both the sire 

 and the dam, in such way as to take up, appropriate and apply all 

 the qvialities of speed and trotting action in either Pilot or the racing 

 crosses which enter into the combination, and the product is a stal- 

 lion of the most positive caste — a trotter almost without superiors 

 and with few equals. That he will prove a royal trotting sire, is 

 assured by all the renown of Pilot Jr., by the success of Tattler, and 

 by the sovereign richness of Mambrino Chief, and the now illustrious 

 train that acknowledge descent from his blood. His high breeding, 

 his magnificent form and exuberant trotting quality, stamp him as one 

 of the triumphs of the age. 



With such a stallion to cross on the highly bred mares by Idol and 



Ashland, on the Royal Georges from Jefferson, on the daughters of 



Smuggler, and the closely bred Hambletonians and Fearnaughts, and 



the more advanced and highly bred descendants of the Morgan stock. 



New England will make an advance in breeding that will recall all 



the glories of the richest days of the early Messengers. 

 32 



