THE VALUE OF THOROUGHBRED STALLIONS. 49 



America, herself, has contributed to the breeding ranks of 

 thoroughbred sires some very noted animals, among which 

 may be found a Boston c. h., deriving his name from a popular 

 game of cards at that time, who was a great race horse 

 himself and a sire of the great Lexington, foaled in 1850, 

 bred by Dr. Warfield of Lexington, Ky. He first ran on 

 the turf under the name of Darley and was a winner; was 

 then purchased by Mr. Richard Ten Broeck, who changed his 

 name to Lexington. He ran many successful races, winning 

 for his owner many thousand dollars ; and after breaking down 

 as a racer was purchased by Mr. Robert A. Alexander of Ken- 

 tucky, proprietor o£ "Woodburn, for stock purposes, for $15,000. 



Mr. Alexander's friends ridiculed his paying such a price for 

 a broken-down stallion, useless for the race course and untried 

 in the stud ; the far-seeing Kentuckiah replied that the day 

 would come when he would sell one of the produce of the 

 horse they then despised for more money than he had paid for 

 the sire. 



That day did come, for after his son, Norfolk, had won the 

 two three-year-old stakes at St. Louis in 1864, on Mr. Theodore 

 Winter asking Mr. Alexander to name the price for the colt, 

 he replied "$15,001." That sum was immediately given and 

 Mr. Alexander's prophecy verified. 



Lexington proved himself America's greatest sire and was 

 the sire of Idlewild, Kentucky, Asteroid, Harry of the "West, 

 Jack Malone, Lightning, Lancaster, Daniel Boone, Bayonet, 

 Vauxhall, Judge Curtis, Stonewall Jackson, Kingfisher, Harry 

 Bassett, Tom Bowling, and others of note both on the race 

 course and in the stud. 



THE VALUE OF THOROUGHBRED STALLIONS. 

 As regards the estimate in which the race-loving English- 

 man holds his best bred racing stallions may be approximated 

 from the following table of prices for which a number of 

 prominent thoroughbred stallions have been sold : 



