OLD-TIME TROTTEKS. 211 



King of Morgans, beautiful horse; 



Admired and loved by all; 

 People's pet, and pride of the course, 



He always had the call. 



O beautiful Morgan stallion! 



Perfection in thy day; 

 Still remembered by the million, 



As hero in the fray. 



GOLDSMITH MAID. 



Goldsmith Maid was a bay mare fifteen and one-quarter 

 hands high with no white markings. She was bred by John 

 B. Decker of Sussex Co., IS". J., near the New York State line, 

 and foaled in May, 1857. She was sired by Alexander's 

 Abdallah, when he was a two-year-old. 



Her dam was called " Old Abb," and was sired by Old Ab- 

 dallah by Mambrino, a son of Imported Messenger ; this was 

 the same horse that sired Eysdyk's Hambletoniari, thus making 

 the Maid an inbred Abdallah and a granddaughter of the " old 

 rat-tail " (on side of dam), and a great granddaughter on the 

 side of the sire. 



She, like many of the Abdallahs, had rather an ungovern- 

 able disposition and was not broken to harness until some five 

 years old; she was more than a handful for most drivers. 

 When eight years old Mr. Decker sold her for $350, parting 

 with her without regret. Her purchaser, soon tiring of a mare 

 that he could not drive, soon bartered or " swapped " her off 

 to Alden Goldsmith, who thought he detected signs of speed 

 in her, for the equivalent of $750. 



This gentleman gave her the name by which she was ever 

 afterwards known, that of Goldsmith Maid. He at once set at 

 the work of developing her speed, and in her eight-year-old 

 form in .1865, she trotted her maiden race and won in three 

 straight heats, getting a record of 2.36. With this race mod- 

 estly began that career which afterwards caused the entire 

 trotting world to hold up astonished hands. 



In 1866 she trotted two races, winning both, and reducing 



