104 The American Thoroughbred 



or seven of them to mate with his stallion, Grinstead, whom I shall always regard as 

 the best sire that ever came from the male line of Lexington. From these mares he 

 bred Volante, winner of the American Derby and a dozen other sweepstakes ; Santiago, 

 who won the Drexel and Sheridan and who would have won the Derby with an honest 

 ride; and Rey del Carreras (Americus) a winner in both England and America, 

 against the very fastest horses of his day. Glenelg's triumphs, as a sire, covered nearly 

 a quarter-century; and if ever a horse departed this life as full of laurels as of 

 years, he was that horse, for he lived to be thirty-three and got some fair winners at 

 twenty-nine. Glenelg was a great race horse himself and his defeat of Niagara (sister 

 to Preakness, Rubicon and Bay Final, the only three brothers, bred in America, to win 

 races in England) for the Bowie Stakes at Baltimore, at four miles, proved him a racer 

 of undeniable class. Disgusted at his failures for his first three seasons at the far East, 

 Mr. Belmont (the elder August) sold him to a Kentucky breeder, only to see him 

 premier sire of all America for four seasons out of the six that followed. Glenelg is 

 the only stallion in American stud history to get four horses that won over forty 

 races each. These were Little Minch, 84 races; Gleaner, 50; Firenze, 47, and Los An- 

 geles, 47, making 228 races won by four horses got by one sire. I doubt if any other 

 stallion can make the same showing. Glenelg, in the four seasons of his premiership, 

 had to his credit as follows: $98,862 in 1884; $113,638 in 1886; $120,031 in 1887, and 

 $130,746 in 1888, or nearly $30,000 more than Hanover got in the same number of 

 seasons. 



Individual merit like this cannot easily be denied. It shows that a horse whose get 

 won in four seasons as premier sire of America, was capable of maintaining his su- 

 premacy against all comers, when you consider the number of races won by his get 

 and their moneyed value. Like the peerless Lexington of a previous generation, Glenelg 

 got no sires of any great merit, but his daughters have already built up the reputation 

 of more than one prominent winner and several fairly good stallions. As Glenelg's fe- 

 male tail line had not produced any sire of note, the more intelligent class of breeders 

 fought shy of him at first. Nor was it until he had been established thoroughly as a 

 premier sire that they began to court his favors as a sire. His mark upon the breed of 

 thoroughbred horses in America is one that is clearly indelible and his daughters are 

 plainly responsible for it. None of his sons has every arisen to the dignity of a first-class 

 sire. Glenelg died at the advanced age of thirty-three years and got five foals when 

 he was thirty-one. 



1 , RAYON D' OR classes up with the very best of our irn^orted sires, not so much 

 through Chaos who placed him at the head of the list in 1889 as through the general 

 merit of his progeny. The brave old French horse not only won the St. Leger of 1879 

 but also carried off the Rous Memorial and the Prince of Wales' Stakes at Newmarket 

 at four, in addition to winning the Prix du Cadran and the Prix Rainbow (3*4 miles), 

 beating the French Derby winner, Zut, in both these races on his native soil. Very few 

 stallions, either native or imported, get such performers as Tenny, winner of the 

 Brooklyn Handicap with 127 pounds; Tea Tray, a winner at all distances; Don De'Oro, a 

 great winner in the colors of the younger August Belmont ; Octagon, twice a winner of 

 the Toboggan Handicap and already sire of that peerless filly, Beldame ; Chaos, winner 

 of the Futurity; Banquet, winner of twenty-eight races, four of which were won in 

 England, and Laura Stone, one of the best fillies of her day. In all he got 104 winners, 

 nearly all of which won more than one race. His daughters have bred well, one of 

 them being the dam of Handspring, the best three-year-old 'of 1896 and already the 

 sire of such stake-winners as Major Daingerfield, whose time for the great Realization 

 Stakes is still the record for that race. 



IMPORTED WAGNER, who comes from the same line of mares that produced Chat- 

 ham, The Nabob, The Duke, The Earl (Grand Prix de Paris in 1868) Sesostris, Spring- 

 field and Tadmor, in England; and the great Kingfisher (one of Lexington's best sons) 



