CHAPTER XVII.. Messenger and His Ancestors.

MESSENGER AND HIS ANCESTORS.

Messenger the greatest of all trotting progenitors—Record of pedigrees in English Stud Book—Pedigrees made from unreliable sources—Messenger’s right male line examined—Flying Childers’ “mile in a minute”—Blaze short of being thoroughbred—Sampson, a good race horse—His size; short in his breeding—Engineer short also—Mambrino was a race horse with at least two pacing crosses; distinguished as a progenitor of coach horses and fast trotters—Messenger’s dam cannot be traced nor identified—Among all the horses claiming to be thoroughbred he is the only one that founded a family of trotters—This fact conceded by eminent writers in attempting to find others 205-221