Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-04-10

He is a compact, handsome shaped horse
and possesses great speed. Last year af-
ter a full season In the stud he trotted a
mile in 2:22t over the track in Provi-
dence. He seems to possess the ability
to train on and has such wonderful re-
cuperating powers that he can put heats
in up to his clip. George Moody Benton,
owned at West Gray, Maine, by Mr.. S.
l.. Adams, is another inbred Messenger
and Benton. Either of these horses
ought to be successful in the stud.
This is pretty much after the stereotyp-
ed plan. The first assumption always is
that Messenger Is, if not the sole, at least
the principal source of all trotting speed,
as if one were to assume that Sirius is
the only star in the sky that really gives
any light. Next, show by evidence,
true and false, that speed descended from
Messenger in other lines than through
Mambrino. Next, assume that all lines
to Messenger are speed-producing lines,
then add to the true lines to Messenger,
double or quadruple the number of
spurious ones, ignore every other element
of the breeding, and your Messenger
pedigree is manufactured and stands
henceforth another imposing p%asteboard
monument to the fame of the gray son of
Mambrino.
Now to the blind leading of this article.
We will number the specific errors and
misstatements % Almack was not a son,
but a grandson of Messenger. CD Win
throp Messenger was not a son of Mes
senger. No one knows who bred him,
and the theory that he was by Messenger
rests on the fact that he went from Long
Island to Maine and was called a Messen-
ger. But in his long and circumstantial
calls him "the good horse Messenger, that
stock so well known and approved on
Long Island, New York and Pennsyl-
vania," but does not claim that the Orgin-
al Messenger was his sire. Moreover, he
states in this advertisement hat the horse
is ''eight years old" (lS19), and Messen-
ger died on the 2Sth of January, 1908.
The most that can be claimed for Win
throp Messenger is that he was probably
a grandson of imported Messenger. 90
That the blood of Winthrop Messenger,
mingled with other strains, helped to pro-
duce good roadsters is true; but the state
ment that from him ''came a class of
roadsters which the world has never seen
equalled" is foolishly extravagant.
(4) Now as to the ''grand trotters"
which in this article are assumed to stand
solely to the credit of Messenger through
his assumed son, and perhaps real grand
son, Winthrop Messenger; it will be
found On examination that this is mostly
assumption. Belle of Portland was by
the Witherell horse, as to whose paternity
it is an open question whether he was by
Winthrop Messenger or by Dolphin, a
horse of no Messenger blood; and his
dam is untraced. Witherell's dam, how
ever. was by a Morgan horse standing in
New Hampshire, generally conceded to
have been Sherman Morgan, and his
second dam was a mare that was when a
filly taken up astray, and was of Morgan
build and characteristics. If we conclude
that Witherell was by Winthrop Messen-
ger, he yet had as much of the blood of
Justin Morgan as of Messenger and it is
certainly as fair to credit the merit of
Belle of Portland to the one as to the
other. The sire of Belle Strickland was
the Morrow horse, son of Witherell Mes
senger from a Morgan dam, and so was
more Morgan than Messenger. Sam
Curtis is in strange company; he was by
the intensely inbred Morgan. Winthrop
Morrill,, and his dam by the Eaton horse
by the Avery horse, son of Bucephalus 4;
this Bucephalus has been called a son of
Mambrino, but we know that this is with
out warrant: he was one of the unappro-
priated and was taken by the Messenger
clique, after their fashion. We haye
traced this horse far enough to know that
nothing whatever was or could have been
known of his blood. At the proper time
this history will be given to the public.
Lew Pettee was by the Benson horse, son
of the Crawford horse brought from
Canada, a horse with no suggestion of
Messenger blood. and was from a dam of
unknown pedigree. Why is he classed
in with the Messengers? W. II. Taylor
was by this same Crawford horse and
perhaps gets n thirty-second part of
his blood from Messenger through his
dam, a daughter of the Witherell horse,
and of course gets as much or more Nor
gan blood the same way. Stranger was
by the Eaton horse, above mentioned,
and from an unknown dam-no Messen-
ger about him. Zac Taylor was by the
Quimby horse, son of Winthrop Messen-
ger, and perhaps Fanny Pullen was by
the horse last named. But in IA recent
issue of the Monthly Mr.. Wallace says
of Fanny Pullen, "James Pullen came
all the way from Maine and .fully iden-
titled her under oath as a mare he had
bred" If this Identification was correct,