PROBABLY A DUROC-MESSElSrGEK. 527 



traits very similar, in the absence of any positive and absolutely 

 authentic testimony on the subject, I shall reject all mystery in the 

 origin of their trotting- qualities, and rest in the belief that if the 

 true pedigree is ever ascertained it will trace to Cock of the Rock, 

 son of Duroc, out of Romp, by imported Messenger. The indications 

 of that blood are so unmistakable to my mind that I should not ex- 

 perience any concern for a different or a better solution of the whole 

 supposed mystery. 



Those who have seen the trotting action of the progenv of Cham- 

 pion Blackhawk, owned in Hamilton county, Ohio, can not have failed 

 to notice two facts: first, that the action of the family is different from 

 the other Blackhawks, and second, that it is almost identical with 

 that of the Golddusts, This horse Champion Blackhawk was owned 

 in Central Ohio for a time, and left some very excellent roadsters in 

 that region. He was by Vermont Blackhawk, dam by Cock of the 

 Rock, and I strongly suspect that another daughter of the same stal- 

 lion bore this horse Barnard Morgan, although my belief has no other 

 support than that which is given above — that of locality, time, and 

 the marked similiarity of the blood traits and ways of going found in 

 the same families. I have seen three stallion sons of Golddust which 

 bore the most striking resemblance in form and manner of going to 

 the stallion Rhode Island, enough to excite a strong belief that they 

 also bore to him the relation of a controlling kinship in blood. 



Golddust was foaled in 1855, and was sixteen hands high, and an 

 early trotter. He trotted a mile in three minutes as a three-year-old. 

 These will be recognized as Duroc-Messenger characteristics, and a 

 wide departure from the pretended in-bred Morgan origin of the 

 family. 



The stallion Rhode Island was a great trotter, and a trotting sire, 

 and the only line of trotting blood he possessed came from Cock of 

 the Rock, a Duroc-Messenger; and if it be found that the dam of 

 Barnard Morgan was by Cock of the Rock, the inheritance of Gold- 

 dust is not only accounted for, but his peculiar gait is also ex- 

 plained. The latter peculiarity finds abundant explanation if we 

 look further into the pedigree of Cock of the Rock. His dam was 

 Romp, and her dam was the imported PotSos mare, and her dam was 

 by Gimcrack — the starting point of the long thigh — the index fino-er 

 which controls this matter of gait in so many families and branches 

 of our American trotters. 



At this point, after this long but perhaps incomplete review of our 



