38 Making the American Thoroughbred 



Diomed was imported into Virginia in the spring of 

 1789 by Messrs. Lamb and Younger who had paid 50 

 guineas for him. He had lost popularity in England 

 because of the obstinacy of his get. Soon after reaching 

 Virginia he changed hands several times, the price in one 

 deal being 1,000 or 1,200 guineas. As the property of 

 Col. M. Selden and Thomas Goode he stood two seasons 

 at Goode's in Chesterfield and, it seems, was kept all his 

 life in Virginia. 



Among the most renowned of Diomed's get in this 

 country were: Ball's Florizel, dam by imp Shark, foaled 

 1802; Duroc, dam Amanda by Grey Diomed, 1806; 

 Madison, dam by Chanticleer; Potomac, dam by Pegasus, 

 1801; Stump-the-Dealer, dam by imp Shark, 1801; Vir- 

 ginius, dam by Chatham, grandam by Hall's imp Eclipse, 

 1805; and Sir Archy. Also the dams of Henry, Eagle, 

 Corporal Trim and Sir Alfred; Bolivar's grandam; and 

 others whose names are prominent in the early history of 

 Tennessee stock. 



In 1831 a writer said that there was not a good horse 

 in Virginia that did not have Diomed's blood, or that of 

 one of his descendants in his veins, and in 1883 so eminent 

 an authority as Mr. Bruce said, "there is scarcely a good 

 horse in England today but what has some of his blood." 



Diomed died in Virginia in 1807 or 1808, leaving behind 

 him "a name and a fame which will endure to the end of 

 all time, and crowned with the laurels of the two great 

 racing countries of the world, England and America." 1 



BEDFORD, foaled in 1792, was got by Dungannon, 

 dam Fairy by Highflyer, g. dam by Young Cade; by 



1 Among the eminent Virginians who appreciated Diomed's 

 qualities was Thomas Jefferson, whose Monticello, bred by him, 

 was by Diomed, out of a mare by Chanticleer best son of Wildair 

 and best horse of his day. 



