CHAPTER XVII.
MESSENGER AND HIS ANCESTORS.
Messenger the greatest of all trotting progenitors—Record of pedigrees in English Stud Book—Pedigrees made from unreliable sources—Messenger’s right male line examined—Flying Guilders’ “mile in a minute”—Blaze short of being thoroughbred—Sampson, a good race horse—His size; short in his breeding—Engineer short also—Mambrino was a race horse with at least two pacing crosses: distinguished only as a progenitor of coach horses and fast trotters—Messenger’s dam cannot be traced nor identified— Among all the horses claiming to be thoroughbred he is the only one that founded a family of trotters—This fact conceded by eminent writers in attempting to find others.
Having completed a brief historical sketch of horse history from the beginning, and many events connected therewith, we are now ready to consider the American Trotting Horse, as the culmination of what has been written. Thus far we have met with much pretentious nonsense, claiming to be history and written by men who never gave the subject the study of an honest hour. The horse is honest enough, but the rule seems to be almost universal that whenever men commence to write about him they are guided by their imagination and not by the facts. As to what we are to meet in the coming chapters, I can only say that, unfortunately, “the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” The instinct to misrepresent has been transmitted, and I cannot promise that we will find any great moral improvement among the horsemen of our own country and generation.
For more than three-quarters of a century, and indeed from the first trotting experiences of this country that have been preserved, it has been the unanimous judgment of all who have given any thought or attention to the subject that the imported English horse, Messenger, was the great central source of trotting speed. As the years have rolled by this opinion has increased in strength until it has become an intelligent and demonstrated belief. When, forty years ago, a horse was found able to trot a mile in two minutes and thirty seconds, the speed was deemed wholly phenomenal, but that speed has been increased, second by second, until we are now on the very brink of two minutes. In this process every second and fraction of a second that has been cut off has been so much additional proof of the universal belief that Messenger was the chief progenitor of the American trotter. He is not the only source of trotting speed, but he is the chief source. Whence he derived this distinctive power to transmit trotting speed will be made more clear as we proceed. His blood left no deep nor lasting impress upon the running horses of the country, and it is seldom we meet with any trace of it in the running horse of to-day, but it is prominent and conspicuous at the winning post of every trotting track on this continent. This will be made apparent when we come to consider the details and the merits of the mighty tribes and families that have descended from him.
Several years ago I promised to write a volume on “Messenger and his Descendants,” and I have often been reminded of that unfulfilled promise, which I will here try to redeem. When that promise was made I had written many things about Messenger, but since then I have secured very many valuable facts that, I think, will far more than compensate for the delay. There is still much that is unknown and much that is only partially known of the origin and history of Messenger and his ancestors, and in considering the questions that will arise as the discussion progresses, I will not submit to a slavish acceptance of whatever has come down in the shape of stallion advertisements, or as unsupported traditions, and then recorded as facts by people who knew nothing about them, and made no effort to know. I shall look for the facts that are known to be facts, or such evidence as is reasonable and commends itself to an unbiased judgment, and then reach such conclusions as right reason shall dictate. The pedigree of Messenger, or rather the pedigree of Messenger’s reputed grandam, appears in the English Stud Book in the editions of 1803 and 1827, in the following form:
This is all we have of the pedigree of Messenger as recorded in the English Stud Book, and this record, on its face, has a very suspicious appearance. Messenger had run some races at Newmarket and a place must be provided for him in the Stud Book. He always ran as a son of Mambrino, and there is no doubt this is correct, as it so appeared in the Racing Calendar, long before the days of the Stud Book. But nobody, either then or later, seemed to know anything about his dam. Toward the close of this chapter I will give an exhaustive review of the many troubles in which these two fillies by Turf seem to be involved.
Messenger was by Mambrino, he by Engineer, he by Sampson, he by Blaze, he by Flying Childers, and he by the Darley Arabian. We give the right male line here for the reason that there can be no doubt as to the accuracy of this line, for it has been preserved in contemporaneous racing records. The trouble, where any trouble exists, is all with the dams of these horses which at best are only matters of the most uncertain tradition. A writer in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1864, covers the whole ground when he says: “The early pedigrees (in the Stud Book) are but little to be relied upon, as they seem for the most part to have been taken from traditional accounts in the stable, from descriptions at the back of old pictures, and from advertisements, none of which had to pass muster at the Herald’s College.” This is in full accordance with our American experiences and it is entirely safe to say that the great body of our old American pedigrees, especially in their remote extensions, are more or less fictitious. The industry of producing great pedigrees out of little or nothing has long been pursued on both sides of the water, and it would be very difficult to determine which side had the better of it.
Before attempting to analyze the pedigree of Messenger, or rather that of his dam, with which the chief difficulty lies, we will go back to the head of the male line and consider each successive generation. The Darley Arabian, one of the most distinguished of all the founders of the English thoroughbred horse, was brought from Aleppo, about the year 1710. He did not cover many mares except those of his owner in Yorkshire, but he was very successful. Childers, commonly called Flying Childers, was foaled 1715. He was got by the Darley Arabian out of Betty Leeds, a distinguished lightweight runner, by Careless. Childers was the most distinguished race horse of his day, and the fabulous story of his having run a mile in a minute was circulated, believed and written about for generations. He ran a trial against Almanzor and Brown Betty over the round course at Newmarket (three miles, six furlongs and ninety-three yards) in six minutes and forty seconds, “and it was thought,” says the old record, “that he moved eighty-two feet and a half in a second of time, which is nearly at the rate of one mile in a minute.” This was the basis of the legend “A Mile in a Minute,” and it has lived till our own day, just as many a traditional pedigree has lived. If we accept the time as given by the old chroniclers, of which we have very grave doubts, Childers ran at the rate of one minute and forty-five seconds to the mile, and he covered a distance of fifty feet and about two inches to the second of time. The pedigree of Childers on the maternal side is one of the oldest in the Stud Book, and we are not aware that any charges have ever been made against its substantial authenticity.