A GREAT HORSE 



campaigners of courage and staying capacity, and for 

 breeding on generation to generation, improving uni- 

 formly from decade to decade, no horse that ever 

 lived has equaled Abdallah 15. As a progenitor he is 

 not only without a superior, but when his opportuni- 

 ties and early death are considered, he is absolutely 

 without a peer." These are strong words, and they 

 were written almost a dozen years ago, but they are 

 even stronger and truer now than then. 



As previously remarked, Major Edsall, Robert Mc- 

 Gregor's sire, was not the best son of Alexander's 

 Abdallah ; that title is so evenly disputed by Almont 

 and Belmont as to rightfully belong as much to one 

 as the other. Cresceus's maternal strain to Almont 

 is through Allie West, who broke the four-year-old 

 record in his day, and whose death at the early age of 

 six years robbed his family of perhaps the most extra- 

 ordinary member it ever produced, and Kentucky of 

 as great a sire possibly as was ever foaled in the blue 

 grass. Cresceus's maternal top line is to Mambrino 

 Chief, and while Alix, 2 :o3f , would seem to assert 

 the contrary, it may safely be said that Mambrino's 

 blood is stronger as a female than a male element. 

 Cresceus gets it through a son and two daughters ; 

 Mambrino Howard, the son, may be considered the 

 weak point in the genealogy, but the extreme merit of 

 his daughter Mabel affords almost equalizing effect. 

 Davy Crockett briugs in a close pacing strain. Of 

 Victor, whom we reach with the third dam, it is inter- 



14 



