Chapter XXX. on the investigation of pedigrees, Clay Pilot got The Moor,

himself a fast trotter and a successful sire. He died at ten years old, leaving among others the famous Beautiful Bells, 2:29½, that, mated with Electioneer, produced a remarkable family; and Sultan, 2:24, sire of the great Stamboul, 2:07½, and of thirty-eight other performers, and of thirteen producing sons and twenty producing daughters. The Moor founded an excellent family.

From a sister to Crabtree Bellfounder, by imported Bellfounder, Neave’s Cassius M. Clay got the black stallion Harry Clay, 2:29, that was quite a reputable trotter in his day, and left five standard performers, sixteen producing sons and twenty-three producing daughters, among the latter the famous Green Mountain Maid, the dam of Electioneer.

CASSIUS M. CLAY JR. (STRADER’S).—This was a handsome brown horse, foaled 1852, by the original Cassius, and his dam was a black mare by Abdallah, that passed through the hands of A. Van Cortlandt and afterward became the property of Joseph Godwin; grandam by Lawrence’s Eclipse; great-grandam the Charles Hadley mare by imported Messenger. This pedigree has been questioned without assigning any reasons or facts, but as it came to me circumstantially and from unquestionable sources I have no reason to doubt it. He was bred by Joseph H. Godwin, of New York, and foaled the property of Dr. Spaulding, of Greenupsburg, Kentucky. He made some seasons in the hands of Dr. Herr, of Lexington, Kentucky, was bought 1868 by R. S. Strader, and passed to General W. T. Withers, of Lexington, where he died 1882. He was engaged in several races and made a record of 2:35¼. He put four in the 2:30 list, and he left sixteen sons that were the sires of forty-six trotters and seven pacers. His daughters have produced well, thirty-four of them having produced forty-two trotters and seven pacers. This shows him to have been a better horse than his sire and better than any of the other sons of his sire.

GEORGE M. PATCHEN was a large bay horse, fully sixteen hands high and heavily proportioned. He was bred by H. F. Sickles, Monmouth County, New Jersey, for Richard F. Carman, of New York, the owner of his dam. He was got by the original Cassius M. Clay, and his dam was a light chestnut mare, owned and driven on the road by Mr. Carman. As the blood and origin of this mare was for many years unknown, it is necessary to go into some particulars concerning it. From 1835 two brothers, Thomas and Richard Tone, were contractors on the streets in the northern part of New York City. Two or three years afterward Richard bought or traded for a large, strong sorrel mare to work in one of their dirt carts. It was represented that she had lost a foal shortly before and she was thin in flesh and looked coarse. When she moved out of a walk she always went into a pace, and that seemed to be her natural gait. They kept this mare at work in the cart for several years and sometimes turned her out to pasture in a small field at the foot of “Break-neck” hill, adjoining a pasture owned by the Bradhurst family. One morning a two-year-old stallion colt, owned by Samuel Bradhurst, was found in the pasture with the big pacing mare. He had broken down the fence between the two pastures and gotten the big mare with foal. In due time she dropped a light chestnut filly, and when weaned, Thomas Tone bought this filly from his brother Richard, and at two years old commenced working her to his wagon. She had very severe treatment for so young an animal and went amiss, when Thomas sold her to James Scanlon, a blacksmith, and after a time he sold her to Richard F. Carman for a driving mare. Like her dam, when she started off she would pace, but after going some distance she would strike a trot and go very fast. Mr. Carman paid one hundred dollars for her and he drove her beside another that he paid fifteen hundred for, and his fast daily drives from Carmanville down to the city soon tested the respective merits of the two mares. The hundred-dollar mare could outlast the other and had to help her along toward the end of the drive. In time she was foundered and permanently stiffened and that was the reason she was sent to Mr. Sickles to be bred.

We must now look after the two-year-old colt that was the sire of this mare. Robert L. Stevens, of Hoboken, owned the famous race mare, Betsey Ransom, and with others he bred from her the two fillies, Itasca and Frolic. In 1837 these two mares were owned by Samuel Bradhurst, who manifested a sporting disposition, very much against the wishes of his father. In 1837 he bred these two mares to imported Trustee, then standing at Union Course, Long Island, and the produce were Head’em and Fanny Ransom. It is not known what became of Fanny Ransom, but he continued to own Head’em for some years and ran him in 1841 at the Union Course and beat the imported colt Baronet, by Spencer. There seems to be no other trace of his running or his stud services. It was in 1840, therefore, that he jumped the fence and in 1841 that the dam of George M. Patchen was foaled. George Canavan, Mr. Bradhurst’s coachman, says there were no other foals of any description bred by Mr. Bradhurst. These facts were gleaned personally and separately from Tone and Canavan, and as they complement and sustain each other, they must be accepted as the best information extant on the breeding of this great horse. His dam was by Head’em, a son of Trustee, out of a mare by American Eclipse, a grandson of Messenger, and she was a pacer and a trotter. His grandam was a pacer of unknown breeding.

In 1851 he was purchased for four hundred dollars from Mr. Sickles by John Buckley, of Bordentown, New Jersey, and a few months afterward he sold a half interest in him to Dr. Longstreet, of the same place, and he remained their joint property till 1858, when Mr. Buckley sold his half interest to Mr. Joseph Hall, of Rochester, New York. He commenced his remarkable career on the turf in 1855 and it continued till 1863. In 1858 he was engaged in the first race that gave him a national reputation. This was against no less a celebrity than Ethan Allen, and he was distanced, leaving Ethan with a clear title to the stallion championship. In 1860 he turned the tables on his old rival and beat him in straight heats in 2:25, 2:24, 2:29. The next week the contest was renewed and Patchen again won in straight heats, and this gave him the unchallenged right to the rank of the fastest trotting stallion in the world. His triumphs, however, were as wide as the trotting turf and not limited to sex. He was able to beat and did beat all the best but the indomitable little Flora Temple, and although he beat her twice, she was too fast for him and beat him many times. It is not my purpose to give a history of his achievements. It is sufficient to say he made a record of 2:23½, with thirty-four heats to his credit in 2:30 and less, and two miles in 4:51½.

It cannot be said that he was a very great success in the stud as we now measure success. Four of his get were able to enter the 2:30 list, and among them was the great Lucy, with her record of 2:18¼. Fifteen of his sons became the sires of sixty-two trotters and three pacers, and four of his daughters produced five trotters. It is hardly fair to compare the stud services of a horse of Patchen’s generation with many of the great sons of Hambletonian, but at the same time we must not forget that Patchen was foaled the same year as Hambletonian. On the first of May, 1864, when Dan Pfifer was preparing him for the racing season then about to open, he died of a rupture, just as his sire had died.

GEORGE M. PATCHEN JR. (California Patchen) was a bay horse by the foregoing; dam Belle by Top Bellfounder, a grandson of imported Bellfounder, of which little is known. He was bred by Joseph Regan, Mount Holly, New Jersey, and taken to California 1862 by William Hendrickson; returned to New York 1866, sold to Messrs. Halstead, Poughkeepsie, 1867, and by them to W. A. Matthews in 1869, and taken to San Jose, California; then sold to P. A. Finnegan, of San Francisco, and died the property of J. B. Haggin, Sacramento, 1887. He was campaigned quite extensively during the years 1866 and 1867 in the East, and carried away a good share of the winnings from the best. His best record was 2:27. In the stud he was more successful than his sire, which may be accounted for by his more numerous progeny and his longer life. From his own loins he put ten trotters into the 2:30 list, and, although there was no Lucy among them, Wells Fargo made a record of 2:18¾; Sam Purdy, 2:20½; Vanderlyn, 2:21, etc., showing a better average than the get of his sire. Ten of his sons got twenty-three trotters and two pacers, and eleven of his daughters produced twenty-five trotters and three pacers.

Several of the other sons of George M. Patchen left valuable and fast trotting progeny, and among them I will name Godfrey Patchen, with nine trotters to his credit and his descendants breeding on; Henry B. Patchen, with seven to his credit; Seneca Patchen, with sixteen trotters and one pacer to his credit, perhaps more than he is honestly entitled to; Wild Wagoner, with four to his credit; and Tom Patchen with three and his family transmitting speed.

In considering the founders of the Clay family, there are two or three important facts that should be kept in view, bearing upon the growth, or the decadence of the family. In a breeding sense this appears to be the longest line of _developed_ speed that we have in any of our trotting families. While we know that there were developed trotters and pacers many years before Abdallah and Andrew Jackson were foaled, we are not able to connect them in lines of descent, generation after generation. As Andrew Jackson with his developed speed stands at the head of this line, the question naturally arises, Where did he get his ability to trot? The only answer we can give is, from the daughter of Messenger that was the grandam of his sire, and from the fast pacer, Charcoal Sal, that produced him. Even if we accept the pedigree of Young Bashaw, with his Messenger grandam, when we get to Andrew Jackson we are a long way from the Messenger source of trotting speed; hence, we must look to the pacing speed of his dam—Charcoal Sal from Ohio—as the more probable source.

Andrew Jackson was bred upon the converted pacer Surrey, and produced Henry Clay, then Henry Clay was bred upon Jersey Kate, of unknown blood, but a producer of trotting speed, and produced Cassius M. Clay. Then Cassius M. Clay was bred upon a mare “full of Messenger blood” and produced Strader’s Cassius M. Clay—the best of the Clay name by the record. Cassius M. Clay (the original) was also bred on “Dick Carman’s mare” and produced the famous George M. Patchen. This Carman mare was by a running-bred son of Trustee. She was both a pacer and a trotter and her dam was a natural pacer. George M. Patchen was bred on the Regan mare and produced California Patchen. This mare was, practically, of unknown breeding. California Patchen was bred on Whiskey Jane and the produce was his best son, Sam Purdy. This mare Whiskey Jane was quite a trotter and she was undoubtedly pacing bred, but I will not here enter into the details of her origin.

We have here before us a condensed view of the trotting inheritance of the Clay and the Patchen families from Andrew Jackson to Sam Purdy, and its most remarkable feature is its poverty in recognized trotting blood. On the maternal side, the pacing habit of action seems to prevail in almost every succeeding generation. The second thought is that the tribe has not held its vantage ground of the first and the longest line of developed trotting speed. The third is that it has failed to transmit speed with uniformity, but rather sporadically. This may be accounted for by the general character and uncertainty of the maternal side, and suggests the question whether animals so bred can be relied upon to transmit with uniformity an inheritance received sporadically. From its place in the first rank as to time and popularity, this family has not been able to hold its own and it has declined to a place among the minor families of trotters and bids fair to be absorbed by tribes of stronger trotting inheritance.