CHAPTER XV 



MESSENGER AND THE TRIBE OF HAMBLETONIAN 



Messenger was a gray horse of 15.3 hands, 

 somewhat heavy for a thoroughbred, foaled in 

 1780; bred in England by John Pratt and sired 

 by Mambrino son of Engineer by Sampson by 

 Blaze ; dam by Turf ; second dam, sister to Figu- 

 rante by Regulus ; third dam by Starling ; fourth 

 dam Snap's dam by Fox ; fifth dam Gipsey by 

 Bay Bolton ; sixth dam by Duke of Newcastle's 

 Turk ; seventh dam by Byerly Turk ; eighth dam 

 by Taffolet Barb ; ninth dam by Place's White 

 Turk; and tenth dam Natural Barb mare. 

 Through his sire, Mambrino, he traced directly to 

 Flying Childers and to the Godolphin Arabian. 

 The foundations of the successful race-horses of 

 England were his foundations. He was imported 

 to America to improve the running horses of this 

 country, and he landed at Philadelphia in 1780. 

 In England he had won 8 out of 13 races, but he 

 never started on this side of the Atlantic. For 

 two seasons he held court near Bristol, Penn- 



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