THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 483 



with a dash of Messenger. The Morgans are trotters only when 

 crossed with Messenger or other trotting blood. Some of them 

 have crossed well with fast pacers, as have nearly all other families. 

 The Morgans were in very great repute at one time. They were 

 small, stout, handsome, stylish horses, with particularly fine necks 

 and heads. They were remarkable for soundness and docility, but 

 not for trotting speed. They have been so crossed with other 

 strains that the family is about obliterated, but it left a good im- 

 pression on the stock of New England horses. 



Another family of much reputation are the American Stars. 

 The founder of the family was foaled in 1837, and died in 1861, 

 the property of Jonas Seely, Orange county, New York. Many of 

 them incline to bad feet and weak knees, with slender tails, but 

 they are fast and very gamey. They have acquired their greatest 

 distinction by the success of the daughters of Seely's Star as brood 

 mares. Many of these mares that were not themselves remarkable 

 for speed have produced, by various trotting sires, and particularly 

 by Hambletonian, some of our very fastest horses. Whether the 

 speedy produce of these Star mares will equal their less speedy 

 dams as breeders seems to be doubtful. 



Golddust, a chestnut, foaled about 1855, and owned by L. L. 

 Dorsey, of Lexington, Ky., was the founder of quite a distinguished 

 family of trotters. His sire was a Morgan, and his dam is claimed 

 to be of Arabian and Thorough-bred blood ; but there is some 

 doubt about that in the minds of those who have investigated the 

 evidence. She was probably of much better trotting blood than 

 her published pedigree would indicate. 



Golddust was a trotting sire of superior merit, and under more 

 favorable conditions might have made a reputation equal to that of 

 any other horse of his day. He was used chiefly for the mares of 

 his owner, who believed that all depended on the sire, and nothing, 

 or not much, on the dam, in the breeding of trotters. His stud of 

 mares was consequently selected without much regard to their 

 quality as trotters, and yet Golddust begot some very fast trotters 

 notwithstanding his adverse opportunities. As his sire was not 

 distinguished either as a trotter or a sire of trotters, the probabili- 

 ties are strong that his dam was well up in trotting blood, and that 

 Golddust took his trotting quality from her. It is not impossible 

 that she was bred as represented — by imported Arabian Zilcaadi, 

 out of a mare by imported Thorough-bred Barefoot. This breeding 

 would correspond very closely with the pedigree of Young Bashaw, 

 the founder of the Bashaw family. But there is the difference of 

 a strain of Messenger blood in the Bashaw horse. The Golddusts 

 are handsome and stylish. 



A family that rivals the Hambletonians in popularity is com- 



