CHAKACTERISTICfi OF PILOT BLOOD. 497 



The other sons of Pilot seemed also to possess this quality of 

 impressing- their own trotting and pacing gaits on the produce of 

 thorouo-hbred mares. The son of Ole Bull, Jim Rockev, came from a 

 mare by American Eclipse, said to be thoroughbred. The grandam 

 of Crittenden was referred to in my chapter on Almont, She was a 

 thoroughbred mare, or of that blood so far as her pedigree extended. 

 She produced two daughters, one from Alexander's Abdallah, the 

 great son of Hambletonian, and sire of Goldsmith Maid, Thorndale 

 and Almont, but this mare was of no particular consequence as a 

 trotter or dam of trotters. The blood of Hambletonian did not find 

 a suitable field with the thoroughbreds; but the same mare fi'om 

 Pilot Jr. raised the mare Flora, that trotted in 2:24, and became the 

 dam of Crittenden that trotted in 2:27. 



In the foregoing sketch relative to the descendants of Pilot, I have 

 been greatly aided by an elaborate series of articles found in Dun- 

 ton's Spirit of the Turf^ from which I have drawn largely, and give 

 the time both of record and that not of record, indicated by an 

 asterisk (*), as there stated, not having had the means at hand of 

 wholly verifying the same. 



It will be seen from this rapid review, that the blood of Pilot 

 has already b'^en widely diffused in the ranks of our trotting horses. 

 The very fast time made by so large a number, and the various strains 

 of other blood they have presented, show how universal has been the 

 success of this cross. It has not been twenty-five years since the 

 death of Pilot, yet his descendants already are formed into many 

 suljfamilies, and the new and distinguished trotters that are yearly 

 added to the list, always find some representatives of the black pacer 

 among their number. 



The characteristics of the Pilot blood are quite similar to those of 

 the other pacing families of Canadian descent. They all show cer- 

 tain peculiarities common to the race. They are extremely hardy, 

 and generally long lived. They come to maturity at an early age. 

 They have very superior feet, in fact, no family of horses in the world 

 surpass them for the toughness of the hoofs and the general sound- 

 ness of their feet. They cross with thoroughbred and other highly 

 "bred strains, and in the union exhibit the same qualities with very 

 great uniformity. They do not incline to the gallojDing gait, but 

 readily adopt either the pacing or the trotting gaits. Thev exhibit 

 the same tendency to increase in size and power when crossed with 

 other highly bred families, and they exhibit all the elements of speed 



