St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-01
HambletOnians and MambrinOs.
Editors Turf, Field and Farm.

Editors Turf, Field and Farm.
I call your attention to a matter concern
ing Dexter VS.. Lady Thorne. The posted
turf he could play with Thorne and finally
so Slapped her courage that she was absO-
lutely afraid of him, would sulk at sight Of
him and was distanced by him; in other
words, he thoroughly subdued her. She
knew he was her master. Yet to this day
she is proudly claimed by Mambrino parti-
sans as the best of her family thus far pro-
duced, but they base the claim on her my
thical and fshy trials of 300 up to 2:OS.
Originally, these trials were whispered
around as 2:17I, then 2:14 to 2:15; then,
as the records were further lowered. her
old trial" dropped down too, till it fuc-
tuates now between 200 and 2:0S, accord
ing to the cheek of the narrator. And
when the real 20O-trotter appears we will
hear of her mysterious trials in 1850, &C
companied by the requests of her timers,
bathed in tears not to ever repeat it, as
nobody would believe it and their reputa-
ton as trrf-rats be thereby ruined. The
whole amount of it is this: The West and
South for twenty years swOre by Mambrinos
and at every other line of trOtting blood.
During these twenty years every OPP
portunity was given the MambrinO
blood to produce something great, and to
this day, all things considered, old ThOrne
is the best that family ever produced, from
any. way of breeding, in the direct male
line. In this family no great progress has
been shown in the succeeding generations,
while the Hambletonians have steadily
dropped the 2:17I of her day down to
1904 Of to-day. Then when we turn to
the Mambrinos in the indirect line we find
that their showing is no better, that blood
never having been represented, to the ex-
tent of even one drop, in any king OF queen
of the turf; and to-day, with the ruling
record 1904, we cannot find even the re-
mOtest drop of ManbrinO blood within less
than four seconds "a distance out, say of
the best record. We find Pilot, Star and
Clay blood mingled with Hambletonian in
the cream of the first class, but have to go
to the ranks of the second-rate performers,
as judged by the time standard, before we
get even drop of that much lauded and
loudlY-heralded Mambrino blood. Go away
back to old Flora'S time, and from that day
to this the records for the best mile in har-
ness would beunchanged if Mambrino Chief
had never lived, as that line was never in
any way represented in the long list of sue
Hambletonian and Star, Hambletonian and
Abdallah, Hambletonian and Clay and
Hambletonian and Pilot, but never drop
of Mambrino. Is this chance or is it based
OH cause? think the latter; for the Mann
brinos are ponderous, sprawling, slow
gathering, leggy family. pure-enough gated
and trotters, but lacking snap-nerviness.
They contribute trOtting action, but never
quicken, which the Stars, Pilots and
Clays always do. We hear much
said of George Wilkes, being dependent on
Mambrino Patchen mares; yet Wilkes
fastest performer also contains no Mann
brine blood. The plain fact is that Ken
tucky-bred horses are the fashion, and Ken
lucky, being full of Mambrino blood, can
not cry, 1--WE sell Sinking fish," SO the
Mambrino cross is blindly taken without
reason or results to warrant 1t. The fact is
that Kentucky has produced 1904 and
2:1O performers without Mambrino blood,
and only 2:13% and 2:14 with Mambrino
blood. notwithstanding that the state con-
tanned, probably, more horses with Mann
brine cross somewhere in them than with
out a Mambrino cross of some kind and to
my mind it writes the family down as a
rank failure that owes its popularity to
wind and putting more than to genuine
merit. Then again MambrinO cross may
give game horse, but it gives poor CAM
paigner. I don't recall any family SO liable
to be constantly on the complaining list.
Take nine out of ten of the best performers
containing MambrinO blood and they are
always ailing; generally in the legs and
feet-curbs and Inflammation along the
cords being common complaint. With
me. can truthfully say that these criti-
cisms are based entirely ON records and oh