Almont was bred at Woodburn Farm, was foaled 1864, and was by Alexander’s Abdallah out of Sally Anderson, by Mambrino Chief; grandam Kate, a wonderfully fast pacer by Pilot Jr. Colonel R. P. Pepper informed me that he knew Kate as well as any of his own horses, and that her speed at the pace was “simply terrific.” Kate, whose dam was called the Pope mare, pedigree unknown, had several foals, among them the “catch filly” that was the dam of Clay Pilot, sire of The Moor, that got the great brood mare Beautiful Bells, 2:29½, and Sultan, 2:24, the sire of the world-famous Stamboul, 2:07½. Thus the blood of this pacing Pilot Jr. mare figures in three great sub-families, the Almont family, the Beautiful Bells family, and the Sultan family. Almont was a beautiful cherry bay, very rich in shade, and without any white whatever. He was fifteen hands two and one-quarter inches high at the wither, somewhat higher behind, and stoutly and symmetrically made all over. He could not be called a handsome or highly finished horse, but he was emphatically a well-made one. He had very excellent feet and legs, and these he reproduced with great uniformity, as well as his very intelligent and even disposition. He was trained early at Woodburn, and, like his sire, started but once and distanced his competitor in 2:39¾, this being in his four-year-old form. He soon after showed 2:32 over the slow Woodburn track, and was sold to the late Colonel Richard West for eight thousand dollars and put in the stud. In 1874 the late General W. T. Withers, Lexington, Kentucky, bought him for fifteen thousand dollars, and a half dozen of years later he was very generally regarded as the greatest of living sires, and his prestige made the name of Fairlawn Farm of world-wide renown, and made his owner rich. The fact that ninety-five of his sons have sired standard performers, a greater number of producing sons than is to the credit of any other horse, Hambletonian alone excepted, indicates the high rank Almont must be accorded as a progenitor. In considering his success it is well for breeders particularly to note that good judges considered Almont capable of showing a 2:20 gait any day, and that, like Electioneer, he always was daily given regular and ample track exercise. His gait has been described as bold and open, without an excess of knee action, but with immense display of power behind. Almont died of spasmodic colic, July 4, 1884, in the fullness of his fame, and at an age when, had he been more discreetly used in the stud, he should have been at his prime as a stock horse.

Almont was hardly a sensational horse in his day, the performance of Westmont at Chicago in 1884, when he paced a mile with running mate in 2:01¾, being the one sensational performance to the credit of his progeny. This lightning streak of pacing speed that so often crops out in the Almont family can be readily accounted for by the student of breeding. As has been noted, his grandam Kate, by Pilot Jr., was a phenomenally fast pacer, and, as we have indicated, her blood proved potent in more than one line. In addition to this there was a strong tendency to pace among the progeny of Alexander’s Abdallah. St. Elmo was first shown at fairs in Kentucky under saddle and as a pacer, and many others of Abdallah’s get were known to naturally pace. When we reflect that in Almont this Alexander’s Abdallah blood with its pacing predilection was united with the blood of the old lightning pacer, Kate, we need not be surprised at the great number of fast pacers that came from Almont and his sons. Belmont, too, has shown a tendency to get the pacing gait with great frequency, but not in such frequency or at such high rates as his son Nutwood. As there could not be traced any known pacing blood in Belmont’s dam, and as the fact that Alexander’s Abdallah transmitted an inclination to pace has been generally not known or ignored, some writers have been unable to understand why the Belmonts paced. He got pacers because he inherited that capacity from his sire, and Nutwood got more and faster pacers than Belmont, because in him the pacing inclination inherited from Alexander’s Abdallah was reinforced by the strong pacing inheritance of his dam, Miss Russell, the granddaughter of Old Pacing Pilot.

As shown in the table of Alexander’s Abdallah’s sons, Almont got thirty-seven standard performers, ninety-five of his sons sired five hundred and three standard performers, and seventy-two of his daughters produced one hundred and six standard performers. His most successful sons are embraced in the following table:

LEADING SONS OF ALMONT.

Name.Year foaled.Standard performers.Producing sons.Producing daughters.Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.Performers produced in two generations.
Almont Jr. (1829), 2:261872447203983
Altamont, 2:26¾187539711049
Atlantic, 2:211878246122246
Piedmont, 2:17¼187119381837
Almont Jr. (1764), 2:2918711911115170
King Almont, 2:21¼187414——1115
Pasacas, 2:43187014461327
Almonarch, 2:24¾18751323720
Allie Gaines187512581729
Harbinger18791012313
*Allie West, 2:25187074102431
Abdallah Mambrino1870131112437

* Died at 6 years old.

This line is justly regarded with growing favor as one of our very best and most productive sub-families, and one that is breeding on excellently, generation after generation.

Belmont was a bay horse of very superior form and finish, bred at Woodburn Farm, and foaled there in 1864. He was by Alexander’s Abdallah, out of Belle (that also produced McCurdy’s Hambletonian, 2:26½, and Bicara, the dam of Pancoast, 2:21¾) by Mambrino Chief; grandam Belle Lupe, by Brown’s Bellfounder. Belmont and Almont were of the same age, and, perhaps because of his finer appearance, Belmont seems to have been the preferred one at Woodburn, and was retained while Almont was sold. Though Belmont was a successful horse and established a great family, no thinking man can contend that he was the equal of Almont as a sire, when all the circumstances are considered. Almont spent almost his entire stud career at Fairlawn, where there never were five mares worthy in blood to be in a great trotting stud, where there were scores of mares of all kinds of poor and freakish pedigrees, even to “Arabs,” and where none of the stock was ever trained. Belmont, on the other hand, was all his life at the head of the most famous, and, in his younger years, unquestionably the best collection of trotting brood mares in the world, and where a training department was always maintained. Remembering these conditions, and contemplating the statistics of the two families, it is interesting to speculate as to how the records would stand had Belmont been at Fairlawn, and Almont at Woodburn.

LEADING SONS OF BELMONT.

Name.Year foaled.Standard performers.Producing sons.Producing daughters.Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.Performers produced in two generations.
Nutwood, 2:18¾18701369069432568
King Rene, 2:30½18753517165590
Egmont18733413113872
Wedgewood, 2:191871311296091
Vatican, 2:29¼187914——————14
Warlock188012——————12
Monaco18781114718
Waterloo, 2:19¼188210——1111
Meander, 2:26½18791031717
Mambritonian, 2:20½188310——————10
Herschell188310——————10