“The fact that in the seventh generation from Blaze, on each side, the reunion of the blood in Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, the sire of so many fast American trotting horses, should have proved to be of the most impressive character, would appear to warrant the conclusion that there was a strong latent trotting tendency in the near ancestors, on one, if not on both, sides of Blaze.” These two points from a very high English authority—that Blaze was not thoroughbred and that he was the sire of Shales, a great trotting progenitor, must have due weight in reaching sound conclusions. SAMPSON, the son of Blaze, was foaled 1745, and he has occupied a very prominent and at the same time unique place in running-horse history. He was not only a great race horse, at heavy weights, but he was considered phenomenal in his size and strength, and in his lack of the appearance of a race horse. Some of his measurements have come down to us, and as they are reliable data as to what was considered a remarkably large and strong race horse a hundred and forty years ago, we will reproduce them here in order that the curious may compare them with the average race horse of this generation: Height on the withers, 15 hands 2 inches; dimensions of fore leg from the hair of the hoof to middle of fetlock joint, 4 inches; from fetlock joint to bend of the knee, 11 inches; from bend of knee to elbow, 19 inches; round fore leg below knee, narrowest part, 8½ inches; round hind leg, narrowest part, 9 inches. These measurements may not seem to merit any particular attention at this day, but a hundred and fifty years ago they were considered phenomenal in the race horse. But we are not left to the dry details of a certain number of inches and fractions of an inch upon which to base a just conception of the strength and substance of this horse. A number of historians have told us of the merriment among the grooms and jockeys when Sampson made his first appearance on the turf. The question was, “Has Mr. Robinson brought a coach horse here to run for the plate?” The laugh was on the other side at Malton that day, however, when the “coach horse,” carrying one hundred and forty pounds, won the plate in three heats. The distance was three miles, and Sampson was then five years old. At long distances and at high weights Sampson was a first-class race horse for his day. But, notwithstanding all this, we are told that his blood never became fashionable, for there was a widespread conviction that he was not running-bred on the side of his dam. The historians tell us that he transmitted his own coarseness and lack of the true running type in a marked degree, which was very evident in his grandson, Mambrino.