Strathmore, taking all things into consideration, must be rated among the very greatest sons of Hambletonian. He was a solid bay horse, of the substantial Hambletonian type, foaled 1866, bred by Aristides Welch at his Chestnut Hill farm, near Philadelphia, and was got by Hambletonian out of the quite famous trotting mare Lady Waltermire, by North American, and Lady Waltermire’s dam was said to have been by Harris’ Hambletonian. This North American sired Whitehall, that got the famous trotter Rhode Island, sire of the still more celebrated Governor Sprague, and in the section treating of the latter the reader will find particulars concerning North American. Lady Waltermire was a noted trotting mare in her day, and it has been claimed that she performed faster than 2:30, but I have never been able to substantiate this claim. When Strathmore was a three-year-old, in 1869, I visited Chestnut Hill. Mr. Welch then had three sons of Hambletonian, viz., William Welch, Rysdyk, and Strathmore, who was then called Goodwin Watson. The two former were led out to be shown, but when I inquired for Goodwin Watson, Mr. Welch’s reply was “Oh, he’s a pacer”—except that he used an adjective in connection with “pacer” that added emphasis, and betrayed some degree of regret, or indeed disgust. The fact that several of Strathmore’s sons have gotten many fast pacers need not be marveled at. I am not aware that Strathmore was ever trained, and probably his pacing inclination furnishes the reason. When he was seven years old he was purchased by Colonel R. G. Stoner, of Paris, Kentucky, and named Strathmore, and up to this time, Colonel Stoner states, he had but three foals, one of which was afterward known as Chestnut Hill, 2:22½, the first of his get to earn a reputation. His first two seasons were made in Montgomery County, after which he was taken to Paris, in Bourbon County. Colonel Stoner states in one of his catalogues that Strathmore’s early opportunities in Kentucky were very inferior; that in 1877 and 1878 the service fees earned would not pay for his keep; that up to 1879 he never served a mare with a record or the dam of an animal with a record, and that it was not until Steinway trotted in 1878 as a two-year old in 2:31¾, and Santa Claus as a five-year-old in 2:18 in 1879 that any good mares came to Strathmore. At Colonel Stoner’s sale, February 9, 1886, Strathmore was sold for two thousand one hundred and fifty dollars to Rockhill & Bro., of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and they owned him until his death, March 11, 1895. Strathmore has seventy-one in the standard list; twenty-six of his sons and fifty-four of his daughters have produced one hundred and fifty-eight standard performers.
Egbert is one of the youngest sons of Hambletonian, and has achieved very fair success in the stud. He is closely inbred to the Hambletonian, or rather the Abdallah blood, and is possibly the most notable instance of a successful sire being very closely inbred. Egbert was bred by Hon. J. H. Walker, Worcester, Massachusetts, and was foaled in 1875. He was sold at the sale of Mr. Walker’s horses at Worcester in the autumn of 1877, when he was purchased for the then great price for a two-year-old of three thousand four hundred and twenty-five dollars by H. J. Hendryx, of Michigan, a representative of Mr. Veech, of Kentucky, being a contending bidder. After the sale Mr. Hendryx sold the colt for four thousand dollars to George W. Raudenbush, of Reading, Pennsylvania, who I believe still owns him. In the spring of 1880 Egbert was taken by Colonel Richard West to his farm at Georgetown, Kentucky, and kept there a number of years, and indeed the greater part of his stud career has been in Kentucky. I am not aware that Egbert was ever trained. He is individually a superior horse, but is alleged to have an unkind disposition.
Egbert was got by Hambletonian out of Campdown, by Messenger Duroc (son of Hambletonian); grandam Miss McLeod (dam of Lord Nelson, 2:26¼, and Polonius), by the Holbert Colt (son of Hambletonian); great-grandam May Fly, by Utter Horse, son of Hoyt’s Comet; great-great-grandam Virgo, sister to the dam of Messenger Duroc, by Roe’s Abdallah Chief, son of Abdallah, the sire of Hambletonian. The Holbert Colt, son of Hambletonian, was a pacer, and others in Egbert’s ancestry paced; and in commenting on his pedigree, from this point of view, at the time Colonel West took him to Kentucky, I remarked in Wallace’s Monthly, March, 1880: “Colonel West need not be surprised if he finds quite a number of Egbert’s offspring starting off at a pace.” The facts have borne out the prediction, as a glance at Egbert’s long list of fast pacers will show. Egbert is the sire of seventy-five standard performers, while twenty-five of his sons, and eighteen of his daughters have produced seventy-four standard performers.
Masterlode, that left a family of some merit in Michigan, was a mammoth bay, foaled 1868, got by Hambletonian out of Lady Irwin by Seeley’s American Star. He was a gigantic, coarse horse, and was certainly the largest horse that ever earned a reputation as a sire of trotters. It is said he was quite seventeen hands high and was built on a heavy mold even for his height. He was bred by James M. Mills, Orange County, New York, and passed to A. C. Fisk, Coldwater, Michigan, who owned him until his death in 1892. The most noted of his get was Belle F., 2:15¼, that was one of the very best campaigners out in 1886. He has twenty-eight to his credit in the list, and seventeen of his sons and sixteen of his daughters have produced in all fifty-seven standard performers.
Aberdeen shares with Dictator such honors as attach to the highest success of the “Hambletonian-Star cross” in the stud. This horse was bred by the notorious Captain Isaiah Rynders, at Passaic, New Jersey, and a full account of the investigation of the pedigree of his dam, the noted Widow Machree, 2:29, will be found in Chapter XXIX., on the investigation of pedigrees. Widow Machree was altogether the best trotter of the American Star family, and was especially noted for her gameness. Bred to Hambletonian, it was natural that she should produce a trotter, and Aberdeen was quite a trotter in his day. As a three-year-old he won a stake at Prospect Park, distancing his field in 2:46, and the statement has been published that he later in his career trotted a slow New Jersey track in 2:24¼. This horse was foaled in 1866, and was a bay fifteen hands three inches high, and very stoutly, indeed coarsely made, and was of a dangerously vicious disposition. The good race mare Hattie Woodward, that made a record of 2:15½, first attracted attention to Aberdeen as a sire, and in 1881 he was purchased by General Withers and taken to Fairlawn, and before this his stud opportunities had been very limited. He died in 1892. By far the best of his get is the great mare Kentucky Union, that made a record of 2:07¼ in 1896. Aberdeen has forty in the standard list, fourteen of his sons have produced fifty-seven, and seventeen of his daughters have produced nineteen standard performers.
Sweepstakes must be classed among the successful sons of Hambletonian as a sire of trotters, though in the second generation his family have yet failed of great distinction, nor did Sweepstakes himself get extreme speed. This was a bay horse, foaled 1867, by Hambletonian out of Emma Mills, that also produced Mott’s Independent, by Seely’s American Star. He was bred by the late Harrison Mills, near Goshen, in Orange County, New York, and was never, I believe, trained. Indeed it has been stated that he never wore harness, and is perhaps the most remarkable example of a strictly undeveloped sire of trotters. The most noted of his get is the bay horse Captain Lyons, 2:17¼. Sweepstakes sired thirty-three trotters and two pacers that are standard performers, four sons have produced eight trotters and two pacers, and twenty of his daughters have produced twenty-five trotters and four pacers.
Governor Sprague is one of the few horses not descended in the male line from one of the great foundation progenitors, and that yet was a trotter of merit and the founder of a trotting family. His dam, however, was a producing daughter of Hambletonian, and this must be regarded as the probable source of his power, though his sire was a fine trotter for his day.
Back in the thirties a Frenchman living at Rouse’s Point, New York, near the Canadian boundary line, bred a pacing mare to a horse that was kept in the same stable with Sir Walter, thoroughbred son of Hickory, and the result was the horse known as North American, or the Bullock Horse. It was long claimed that North American was by Sir Walter, but the best authenticated version is given in Wallace’s Monthly, for 1880. This was the statement of a Mr. Ladd, said to be a reliable man, who knew the Frenchman who bred North American. Ladd had formerly lived at Rouse’s Point, and kept a little hotel at Benson’s Landing on Lake Champlain. Ladd’s statement was that the Frenchman had a little pacing mare, from which he wanted to raise a foal, but would not pay more than three dollars for any horse’s service. Sir Walter’s fee was fifteen dollars, but in the same stable was a large stallion that was used to haul water from the lake to the hotel, and the Frenchman was permitted to have the service of this horse for three dollars, and this is the only reliable version I could ever obtain as to the pedigree of North American. Besides the line we are now considering, this horse got Lady Waltermire, the dam of the great Strathmore, and one of his daughters is the dam of two in the 2:30 list, and Vergennes Black Hawk came from another. North America was said to have been a natural trotter, and quite fast for a short distance. A son of his, named Whitehall, from the name of the place where he was bred, was taken to Ohio from New York about 1854 and there got the noted Rhode Island, 2:23½, the sire of Governor Sprague. Rhode Island was a brown horse, foaled about 1857, and his dam was by a black horse called Davy Crockett that was brought from Pennsylvania, and her dam was called Bald Hornet. This mare, Mag Taylor, was bred to Whitehall twice, one of her foals being Belle Rice, the dam of the stallion Harry Wilkes, sire of Rosalind Wilkes, 2:14¼, and the other was Rhode Island. This horse trotted many races, and at Fashion Course, New York, October 27, 1868, earned his record of 2:23½. He about this time passed into the hands of Sprague & Akers, and he died in 1875. At this time Governor Amasa Sprague had among his brood mares Belle Brandon, by Rysdyk’s Hambletonian out of a daughter of Young Bacchus. This was a bay mare, foaled in 1854 in Orange County, and was a fast trotter and a mare of great general excellence. She was driven as a mate to Sprague’s Hambletonian, and Mr. Sprague claimed that he had once driven her a mile in 2:29. Bred to Volunteer she produced Amy, 2:20¼, and to Rhode Island, produced in 1872, Governor Sprague, 2:20½.
Governor Sprague was a black horse, approximating fifteen hands two inches in height, and very substantially built. He is described as having been an exceedingly handsome horse, especially in action, his gait having been pure and beautiful. In 1873 he was sent to Kansas and trained, and so promising was he that he was that year sold to Higbee Brothers and Mr. Babcock, of Canton, Illinois, for one thousand five hundred dollars. He was shown and known as a very fast four-year-old, trotting public exhibitions in about 2:22. With the exception of a three-year-old race at Earlville, Illinois, he did not start in a public race until July 20, 1876, when at Chicago he easily defeated a good field, and so promising and attractive did he seem that the late Jerome I. Case, of Racine, paid the great price of twenty-seven thousand five hundred dollars for him. At Poughkeepsie, New York, that season he lowered his record to 2:20½, and a few more races ended his short but brilliant turf career. He died at Lexington, Kentucky, May 23, 1883, at the early age of eleven years. His stud career was therefore short, and this fact we must remember in estimating his rank as a sire. Kate Sprague, 2:18, and Linda Sprague, 2:19, were about the best of his immediate progeny, and Rounds’ Sprague, that has twenty trotters and pacers in the 2:30 list, some of them in better than 2:20, seems to be his most successful son. Governor Sprague has to his credit thirty-six trotters and two pacers with standard records, twenty-two of his sons have sired fifty-four trotters and fifteen pacers, and his daughters have produced twenty-three trotters and six pacers. There was nothing in the inheritance of Rhode Island to justify a supposition that he would transmit speed uniformly, and, like Smuggler, the speed-getting power with him was sporadic. But from his dam, Belle Brandon, Governor Sprague received the blood of Hambletonian through an individual that had speed herself and naturally produced speed; and this strain, combined with the blood of a horse that was good enough in his day to beat Lucy, American Girl and George Wilkes, gave Governor Sprague a right to be all that he was.