110 THE BLUE BULLS. 



good breeding became popular as a stock horse as soon as old 

 enough for service. 



Commencing at two years of age and during his twenty -two 

 years of service in the stud, he sired more colts than any other 

 trotting sire ever has up to date, and has, all told, forty-one 

 trotters in the 2.30 list. 



Blue Bull was foaled in 1854, in a community where trotting 

 bred mares were unknown and with the accredited parentage 

 that always disgraced him. His road to a decent patronage 

 was steep, rugged, and slowly ascended ; yet, with all these 

 drawbacks he forged himself to the front, solely on his merits. 



In the year that Hambletonian died, 1876, Blue Bull had 

 seven in the 2.30 list and Hambletonian had thirty -two ; but at 

 the close of 1890 Blue Bull had fifty-five trotters and eight 

 pacers in the 2.30 list, while Hambletonian had only forty-one 

 trotters and no pacers. Opportunities considered, there is no 

 room for conjecture as to which had the greatest power to pro- 

 duce 2.30 performers. 



As before stated, the accepted pedigree of Blue Bull is not 

 well established, and to many — a very great many — the re- 

 corded pedigree is absurd. 



As for myself, I lay claim to a better knowledge of horse 

 history than to believe for a single moment that this great 

 horse (one of the greatest sires of speed that ever lived), de- 

 scended from the plebeian ancestry accorded to him by "Wallace. 



Blue Bull was the first horse to sire fifty with harness 

 records of 2.30 or better. Blue Bull was the only sire of thir- 

 teen race winners with twenty heats in 2.30 or better, at the 

 close of 1891. 



He is the only horse that ever lived that had over one hun- 

 dred descendants in the first generation, who carries no blood 

 of Hambletonian or Mambrino Chief. He has put more mares, 

 not trotting bred, in the great brood mare list, than any horse 

 that ever lived. 



Blue Bull, by the records, is the most potent progenitor of 

 harness speed that has ever lived. As other great sires have 



