Kentucky's Greatness of Blood 225 



the United States. At this day and time Lex- 

 ington is the centre of a breeding region which 

 perhaps is not surpassed in the world, and the 

 amount of money which has gone into the state 

 through the thoroughbred horse alone is beyond 

 computation. No other product of the state, not 

 even her whiskey, has yielded to the old common- 

 wealth such an enormous annual income. 



While Virginia and the Carolinas and Mary- 

 land have almost entirely lost their early prestige 

 as the homes of the thoroughbred horse, Ken- 

 tucky has gone on breeding, until now she is the 

 unrivalled section of this country for the produc- 

 tion of the horse, and there are more thorough- 

 breds within her boundaries than exist in all the 

 other states of the Union. 



The men who concerned themselves with the 

 thoroughbred in Kentucky were of the type of 

 the Virginians and Carolinians who had preceded 

 them. Perhaps the most noted man as a breeder 

 that we have ever had in America was Robert 

 Aitcheson Alexander. He was born in Kentucky, 

 was educated at Cambridge, England, under the 

 direction of his uncle. Sir William Alexander; and 

 on his return to this country he gave his atten- 

 tion to breeding. He was possessed of large 



