AMERICAN BREEDS 



115 



and importance of this colt. Attention was first directed, to 

 Hambletonian by his gelded son Dexter, who in 1864, 1865, 

 1866, and 1867 defeated the best horses of the day, George 

 Wilkes, George M. Patchen, Goldsmith Maid, Lady Thome, 

 Flora Temple, and others. The year that Dexter began his 

 sensational performances Hambletonian bred 217 mares and 

 got 148 colts ; subsequently he was so extensively patronized tliat 



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Fig. 82. — Hambletonian lU, at 23 years of age. 



he commanded a service fee of $500.00. It need not necessarily 

 detract from his name and fame to state that no horse ever had 

 such an opportunity in the stud. It was thus that he became the 

 founder of the breed, being the sire of 1321 colts. He died in 

 1876, and a monument was erected to his memory (Fig. 83). 



Hambletonian's best son was George Wilkes, a small but 

 powerfully made bro^vn horse, foaled 1856, out of Dolly Spanker, 

 a good road mare of untraced ancestry. George Wilkes was both 

 a race horse and a sire; after a moic remarkable racing career 



