HANDBOOK OF THE TURF 



EXPLANATIONS 



The abbreviations used in the following pages are : Eng. for terms 

 relating to the English turl ; Eq. for those pertaining to equestrianism; 

 Law. for legal terms and information. 



Abdallah. One of the foundation sires of the Ameri- 

 can trotter. He was bred by John Treadwell, Salisbury Place, 

 L. I., N. Y., and foaled in 1823 ; by Mambrino, by imported 

 Messenger, dam Amazonia. Imported Messenger was foaled 

 in 1780, by Mambrino, dam by Turf, and tracing back through 

 the Byerly Turk to a natural Barb mare. The dam of Mam- 

 brino was by imported Sour Crout, second dam by imported 

 Whirligig, third dam old Slammerkin, a race mare by im- 

 ported AYildair. Wildair's get was so highly esteemed in 

 England that those interested in racing stock in that country 

 sent over here, bought him and took him back to England 

 again. He was by Cade, by the Godolphin Arabian. Of 

 Abdallah's dam but little is definitely known. It is supposed 

 that her sire was a descendent of imported Messenger. In- 

 deed, it is stated by Mr. J. H. Wallace, (American Trotting 

 Register, I, 60), that she was purchased near Philadelphia by 

 Mr. B. T. Kissam, a dry goods jobber of New York, when on 

 a trip to that city, and she was represented to him to be by a 

 son of imported Messenger. She is described as a chestnut in 

 color, 15.3 hands high, and rather coarse in quality and ill in 

 shape. Abdallah has been best described, probably, by the 

 late Mr. B. T. Kissam, who knew the horse well. His descrip- 

 tion, which applies to him in his four years old form, is : " He 

 had a long, clean head ; ear long and tapering ; eyes lively, and 

 of medium size ; neck light, and set low on the withers ; up car- 

 riage, and when in action head carried perpendicularly ; shoul- 

 ders upright ; deep in girth ; full chested ; fore legs very wide 

 apart, causing him to stand with his toes in ; light bone, 

 especially below the knees and hocks ; knees a little forward, 

 flat-ribbed and short in flank; roached back; hips and loins 



11 



