Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-01-24
THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TROTTER DISCUSSIONS.

TROTTER DISCUSSIONS.
New York Dee. 23.-T'here seems to
be "A free-and-easy tendency among con-
tributors to the discussion upon
thoroughbred blood in the trotter to
create dire confusion in the minds of
students of the subject, by their contra
dictory statements as to the amount of
thoroughbred blood that different promi-
nent horses possess. For instance, Mixer,
in speaking of George Wilkes and others,
says their grand-sires were, strictly
speaking, thoroughbred. If he had said
they were substantially thoroughbred, he
would not have been as far amiss, yet by
no means accurate. presume that was
what he meant. While Iconoclast took
the trouble to ridicule him, he did not
point out wherein he was wrong, thus
clearing up the point to others not well
posted on such matters (and every news
paper of liberal circulation has many
such among its readers.
Last week Mr.. \. O.. Goodlett fell as
far in error in an opposite direction. At
ter candidly recognizing the presence of
thoroughbred blood and pointing it out
in prominent trotters, he is remarkably
unfortunate in figuring its relative pro-
portion. For instance, he says Maud 5.
has less than 124 per cent (One-eighth)
of thoroughbred blood and that conse-
quently it could not account for her
superiority. Had he exercised reason
able care in his arithmetic, he would
have seen that Maud 5. derives % per
cent of thoroughbred blood in one lump
from Sally Russell, her thoroughbred
grand-dam. Again, on the sire's side,
she reaches thoroughbred Mambrino
twice in the fourth remove, which affords
l2i per cent more; then through the
dam of IIambletonian she reaches thor
oughbred Bishops Hambletonian in the
| fifth remove, and thoroughbred Messen-
ger Through SilyertaiD in the sixth re-
move, yielding little over four and five
eighthS per cent more, an aggregate of
II Is per cent of known thoroughbred
blood If we credit the version of Pilot
Jr.s dam given by the Kentucky breed
ers, but discredited by Wallace, the thor
oughbred Havoc and Alfred crosses
would add 3-S per cent, more, an ag-
gregate of 5l4 per cent. But there are
still large gaps of unknown blood coming
into the pedigree of Maud 5. through
Amazona (twice), Bellfounder, sorrel
mare (grand dam of Harold), and
through Black Pilot (sire of Pilot, Jr.)
Nothing is more probable than that, if
these pedigrees could be traced, con-
siderable share would be found to be
composed of thoroughbred blood. But
take it at the minimum and we have ~
Is per cent of thoroughbred blood
known to be in the pedigree of Maud 5.
quite different matter from the 121
per cent that MIR. Goodlett tells the read
ers of the Kentucky Stock Farm is all
she possesses. | believe if the truth was
known, no horse ever trotted or paced
mile in 2 20 that did not have at the very
least % per cent of thoroughbred blood
in his composition. One of the confus-
ing parts of this question-one used by
the anti-thoroughbred men to throw dust
in the eyes of their readers-is the I'M
known parts of the pedgrees. They as
sumo that everything unknown is trot-
ting-bred. If Dame Winnie's pedigree
was lost, they would be pointing out
Palo Alto to-day as brilliant instance
against thoroughbred blood in the trot-
ter. Hundreds of times Goldsmith Maid
has been pointed out as such. AS a mat
ter of fact, 1854 almost one quarter of
her blood is known to be thoroughbred,
and the remaining 1864 almost three
quarters) are entirely unknown. Is she
not a nice instance to point out as trot-
ter with no thoroughbred in her I!
Rysdyk's Hambletonian, the backbone
of all trotting leaven, is known to have
possessed 43a per cent of thoroughbred
blood, and how much more he possessed
nobody knows.
There are nine horses that have beaten
2;l3. The pedigrees of some, when at
tempt is made to trace them back to their
roots, run in so many branches to I'M
known sources that it is impossible to
tell how much or how little thorough
bred blood they possess. But in most
instances enough is known to be there
to show that the chief source of all
blood merit in the trotter is the thor
oughbred. The following list explains
itself: