rysbyk's hambletonian 123 



facturing this line of descent for Rysdyk's Ham- 

 bletonian, Alexander Campbell, of Bull's Head, 

 was offered a thousand dollars to certify to the 

 stated pedigree of the Charles Kent mare. 

 Campbell declined, and ordered the Hamble- 

 tonian emissaries out of his office. Here is an- 

 other rather amusing evidence of the careful way 

 in which the pedigree of Hambletonian was bol- 

 stered up. There was no such horse as Bishop's 

 Hambletonian. The horse alluded to was Alex- 

 ander Hamilton, or Bishop's Hamiltonian. No- 

 body ever thought of calling a Hamiltonian a 

 Hambletonian until old Bill Rysdyk did it, simply 

 because he was not gifted in the art of spelling. 

 But this did not bother the record makers. They 

 simply misspelled the name of the elder horse. 

 Surely old Bill Rysdyk laid a spell on the gentle- 

 men of the press, and he kept it to the end as his 

 horse, shaped like a cart horse, rather than one 

 filled with high blood, was a great money-maker 

 in the stud. His earnings by the record were 

 $184,725. 



When there was a great many men interested, 

 and most sincerely, too, in the breeding of trot- 



