rtsdyk's hambletonian 119 



in the female line, from which also came a new 

 English cross, for his dam was by the imported 

 hackney Bellfounder.* In him the Messenger 

 blood was strong, and, himself a trotter of much 

 speed, though never trained, he had the capacity 

 of transmitting the trotting gait in a greater de- 

 gree than any horse in history, " 



There are a good many misstatements in that 

 paragraph; but when I wrote it I was deceived by 

 the false pedigrees which have been manufac- 

 tured and recorded in the trotting-horse registers 

 and stud-books. The truth is, that Hambleton- 

 ian was a bull-like horse that was trained by 

 Hiram Woodruff, but could never develop a 

 speed equal to a mile in three minutes — 3.18, to 

 be exact, being the best mile he ever did. As to his 

 pedigree : Mambrino, the grandsire, was by Mes- 

 senger; but he was worthless and also vicious. He 

 could neither run nor trot. He was bred by Louis 

 Morris, of Westchester County, New York, and 

 sold to Major William Jones of Cold Spring Har- 

 bor, Long Island. As he was worthless and a se- 



* No human being in the world knows anything whatever about the 

 breeding of the Charles Kent mare, Hambletonian's dam. 



