The New York herald., 1922-11-05
HORSES 500 YEARS AGO IN ENGLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS

always while he lived called him a
Dutch horse"
There is another element more mys-
terious in It's antecedents than the Nor
gan horse that cannot be overlooked in
any inquiry concerning the origin of the
American trotter. This is the Nara
gansett PAGER of early Colonial days IN
Rhode Island, which fourished and be-
came famous at Point Judith and vicin-
ty more than 200 years ago. If a min
lister OF the gospel can be trusted 10
time horses and tell the truth about
their speed, these Narragansett PAGERS
were verltable prodigies in their day.
In sa pamphlet called America Dis
secyed" the Rev. James McSparren Of
st. Paurs Episcopal Church in South
Kingston, r. L., said OF them in 1853 ;
II have seen some OF them pace nile
In little more than two minutes, a good
deal less than three.' IL was doubtless
their races on Little Neck Beach, IN
South Kingston. which led to tine Rhode
Island legislation of 1749- prohibiting
all horse races under pain of forfeiture
of the horse and fine of S10O wilkins
Updike editor of the pamphlet in ques-
ton said In q footnote that the pure
bred Narragansetts could not trot nj AL.
John III Wallace, fohnder of The Amer
lean Trotting Register and historian or
the trottng horse. has expressed the be
lief that our modern troters derived
their speed in large part from the VAR
ragansett breed, which seems to nave
been scattered and lost in much me
same way the Morgans were almost ex
tinguished In the last century through
the very popularity of the horses. Keep
ing in mind the fact that very many
of the early American trottins horses
J aI ~ ia Gtn
ones were converted PAGERS; that scores
of great trotters of the present day
come from pacing ancestors close up IN
their pedigrees, and that the two mar
ness gaits are in many families inter-
transmissible. it requires no stretch OF
imagination to credit Mr.. Wallace's
theory
American Trotters I'm England.
One of the first American trotters that
went to England and defeated all cofhers
at all distances there was Tom Ihuihp'
a mere pony. reputed to be or the Nara
gansett breed. He trotted one hundreu
miles on Sunbury Common In a little
more than ten hours. gaining inter-
national fame. This was in 1929, and II
marked the beginning of the acknowl-
edged supremacy of the American trot-
ter over the English in point or speed
and endurance. Boston Blue, the Ireo-
well mare and others had preceded loii'
Thumb, trotting with varying success III
matches on English roads while Char
lotte Temple. Confidence and Rather
were taken over a lfttle later. The last
named horse trotted there as GustaVus'
and was driven tandem with tommy
forty-flve miles In two hours ana nlty-
Ave and a half minutes on Suhpury
Dntt or frOtt9O
thirty-four miles in the same year IN
two hours eighteen minutes and fifty
eight seconds. He had beaten Du,chman
and Lady Suffolk before going abroad
and was recognized as one of the best
horses in America.
With all these positive factors oi
speed-the Dutch and English trotters
and the Narragansett pacers-lh the
country at n time when there was free
and open field for the fittest to survive IL
| is a remarkable fact that practlcaliS
every modern American trotter traces
straight back in the direct male line 70
the English race horse or running morse
Messenger, a MISREPRESENTATION OF
the same Blaze that was said 70 ne
the sire Of Shales. "the father OF inc
English trotting horse.
Messenger landed at philadelphia fr
Island in 1908, after having made TWEEN
tv seasons in the stud in New YORK,
Pennsylyania and New Jersey. Ihough
ne GOT several high class race horses In
Guiding Millers Damsel. the dam oil
American Eclipse, his offspring and de-
scendants were from the first more high
ly priced for the stage coach ana the
road than for the running turf They
were largely from mares representing
tho Dutch English and pacing founda-
tion stock of the country, and while II rs
not known that Messenger himself ever
got a trotter of real note his sons were
the reputed sires of such distinguished
early winners as Betsey Baker. Topgal-
iant. Paul Pry. Daniel ID. Tompkins
Rather and Whalebone. His thorough
bred son Mambrino. a fair race horse
when mated with Amazonia, a coarse
mare of unknown blood but a fast trot-
ter. produced Abdallah, also fast and one
of the most successful sires Of his day
He was foaled in 1928 and died In 1854.
AbdaIIah's Great Son.
IT was when this long cared raj
tailed, headstrong stallion that never
could be harnessed met the Charles Kent
mare, a broken down trotter from New
York, whose performances as four
year-old were reported to be the fastest
ever known for one of her age. that che
first great sire of the breed appeared
| He was foaled I'm Orange county, N. Y.
| in 1S49, and was named Hambletonian
1t is through him that practically all the
fast trotters now on the turf trace back
\ in the male line to Messenger. He was
a round turned, full made horse of only
fair quality closely resembling In shape
action and temperament his materna
grandsire, the imported Norfolk trottei
Bellfounder. The latter was grandson
OF the same Wroot's Pretender that de.
feated Allenby's Atlas in the sixteer
mile race over the road from Huntingdon
10 Cambridge In England In 1896. The
owner OF Bellfounder asserted that ht
had trotted two miles in 6 100 I'm 1921
and in the following year covered min,