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TAINTED LINES OF NOTED HORSES. Racers with Far Away Cold Crosses in England as Well as Here. Few men in this country are as well versed In the history, theories, subtleties and results of breeding as John B. Ewing, and few take a more common-sense view of a matter that, as a last resort, must be gauged by the touchstone of success. In a recent communication to the Thoroughbred Record Mr. Ewing attacks some of the pet fallacies of certain theorists in vigorous fashion and illustrates his arguments by examples that cannot be gainsaid. His very reasonable defense of American thoroughbreds against the "tainted blood" cry is here reproduced: "For some months there has appeared in the columns of the Farmer and Breeder, published at Lexington, and written by a staff correspondent, a series of articles attacking the American-bred thoroughbred horse, or the horse which does hot trace in all of his lines to an English or foreign ancestor, claiming that he is inferior to the latter as a race horse. "This, in view of the fact that Colin, the best two-year-old, Peter Pan and Salvidere, the best three-year-olds, and Nealon, the best four-year-old of the year, all come under the ban, would make his contention seem ridiculous to the ordinary man. "There is no subject connected with the breeding of thoroughbred horses about which there is more humbuggery than the claim that no horse is lirst-class which does not trace in all of his lines to one of the figure families as established by Bruce Lowe, for it has been demonstrated in this country that a first-class horse was produced which ran to the woods, or the cart, as the lamented T. C. Patteson would say, In five crosses. I refer to Tom Bowling, the best of all of Lexingtons great sons, whose pedigree, as given in the Stud Book, follows: Tom Bowling, by Lexington. 1 dam, Lucy Fowler, by Albion. 2 dam, by Pacolet. ;; dam, by Top Gallant. 4 dam, by Gallatin. 5 dam, by Gray Diomed. "Colonel Bruce, the author of the American Stud Book, told me that be got most of his information about the horse families around Gallatin, Tennessee, a noted thoroughbred horse center at that time, from Eli Odom, breeder of Lucy Fowler; Colonel George Elliott, owner of the Tamous Black Sophia; the Honorable Bailie Peyton, Judge Joe Guild and Major Barry, all men of great character and intelligence aud great sportsmen. From them be learned that the sixth dam of Tom Bowling was a common little pacing mare, whose breeding was known, and she was undoubtedly a cold-blooded mare. Lucy Fowler, descending in five generations from this scrub mare, demonstrated that Tom Bowling was no chance race horse, as she also produced to Lexington, Tyrone R. B. Connelly, a good race horse, and to Tipperary, Aaron Pennington and Calvin, two high-class horses. "So great was the prowess of Tom Bowling that it is a well known fact that his owner, Price Me-Grath, told the two men, who it was always necessary to have hold him by the head, that It mattered not how far he started behind the other horses so bis head was turned the right way of the track. "Upon one occasion, when he was starting against a high-claBs field at Lexington, before the era of the bookmaker, many backers went to McGralh to bet the field against Bowling. McGrath took their money as fast as offered and stuffed it in his coat pockets. Some one remonstrated at receiving no memorandum or receipt for his money, whereupon he said It will all be mine after the race; and it was. "Tom Bowling got another strong dash of what the sticklers for English pedigrees call tainted blood through his sire, Lexington, "Another noted short-bred fainlly which owes, its origin to the vicinity of JajatJn, was that of Black Sophia, whoso ijedigiil fnlMvift t Black Sophia, by Top Gallant. 1 dam, by Lamplighter. 2 dam, by Beeder son of Old Union. 3 dam, by Bowie. . "Colonel Bruce, in a note under the above pedigree in the: first volume of the Stud Book, says: " The above is as given .the compiler by Colonel George Elliott owner of Black Sophia, during his lifetime. 1 Edgar gives a different pedigree under Morgiana a daughter of Black Sophia. We think Colonel Elliott right. She was one of the best broodmares in America. "From Colonel Bruce I learned tlrat it, was the opinion of Colonel Elliott, that the fourth dam of Black Sophia was a cold-blooded mare, and from Major Buck Elliott, his son, who died eight or ten years ago, I obtained the same information. "This family in comparatively recent years has produced such top-notchers as Bootjack, winner of the Young America, Belle Meade, Magnolia, Excelsior and Coney Island Stakes, and Manhattan. Cash and Great Metropolitan Handicaps, defeating at equal weights Parole, Monitor, Eole, General Monroe, GIrolle, Aranza and nearly every good horse of his dav General Harding, the best two-year-old of 1SS3, winner of the Jackson, Alexander, Runny-niede, Harold, Sensation, -Criterion aud other stakes; Proctor Knott, winner of the Futurity and Junior Champion, in each of which he defeated Salvator; Helen Nichols, winner at two or twelve races, including the Debutante, Colleen. Willow and Essex Stakes and White Plains Handicap. At three she won 9,300, including the Queen Isabella Stakes, in which she defeated Maid Marian, and she continued to win in England at four, five and six years of age, finally selling for 0,000; Senator Grady, winner of six straight races as a two-year-old of the value of 0,500, including the Sapling Stakes defeating Henry of Navarre; Red Bank Stakes, Select Stakes defeating Dobbins, Henry of Navarre, etc., Junior Champion defeating Henry of Navarre and Flatbush Stakes; Longitude, winner of the Kentucky Oaks; Bill Letcher, winner of the Latonia and St. Louis Derbys; Advance Guard, winner of the Saratoga Cup and forty-six other races; Irish Lad, winner of 4,000 in 1902 and of the Brooklyn Handicap, etc. in 1903; Lady Inez, winner of the Little Rock Derby, Boundless and Gerst Handicaps, Tennessee Oaks, Capitol, Lassie, Melbourne, Debutante, Cumberland and Schulte Stakes, in the latter running a dead heat with Ben Brush; Yankee Consul, considered by many the best two-year-old or 1905, winner or the Flatbush and other stakes and sold for 0,000; Lawrence P. Daley, next to Colin, one of the best two-year-olds of 1907, winner of the Autumn and Dash Stakes and he, the latest member of this family to attain distinction, is only eight removes from the tap root, the mare by Bowie. "Another American family tracing to an unknown source, and of equal merit to that of Black Sophia, is the Maria West family, from which came the four-miler Wagner that beat the noted Gray Eagle, Bright Phoebus, Prince of Melbourne, Daily America winners of the Realization, Davjd Garrick Chester Cup, two and one-quarter miles, Rainbow Brooklyn Derby, Azra, Ben Brush, Riley Kentucky Derby, and many other good ones. "There was foaled in Virginia in 1S03 a colt called Potomac, which subsequently became a very great four-mile race horse. His pedigree is given In the first volume of the Stud Book as follows: Potomac, by Diomed. 1 dam, Fairy, by Pegasus. 2 dam, Nancy McCulloch, by Young Yorlck a cold-blooded horse. 3 dam, by a half-blooded horse called Silvereye. 4 dam, by a common wagon horse. 5 dam, a common plow marc called Estray mare. "Colonel Bruce told me that long before he began accumulating data for the American Stud Book an itinerent Englishman, I believe, named Edgar, had begun a similar work but abandoned it, and he secured much valuable ihrormation from his investigations, among other things the above pedigree of Potomac. Bruce said lie had been informed that Edgar, a man of very high prejudice, had become offended at the owner of Potomac, and had written the horses pedigree as above, through malice, but he had investigated the matter very thoroughly during the lifetime of men familiar with the facts, and was satisfied it was correct as given by Edgar. "Fifteen or twenty years ago there appeared in The Turf, Field and Farm a series of articles written by Judge Hughes of Virginia and Robert Neville over the nom de plume of Trebor of Natchez, Miss., which was in fact a controversy over the pedigree of Potomac. The articles were very ably written, but the writer who sustained the pedigree as given in the Stud Book, which, I think, was Judge Hughes, bad all the best of the argument and there is little room for doubt that the pedigree as given was correct. "In the second volume of the Stud Book, under the heading Stallions, the following pedigree is given: Potomac. 1 dam, by Pegasus. 2 dam, by Old Yorick. 3 dam, by Watkins fine stallion. 4 dam, a fine mare known as Eyebright mare. "A note follows saying: "The "above is copied from The Observer and Reporter, Lexington, Kentucky, 1S23, and it is not inconsistent witli the pedigree given in the first volume with some of the trimmings omitted. Potomac got Jenny Cock-racy, a mare-little less distinguished on the turf than he was himself, and, holy horrors, the dam of Jenny Cockracy was the same Sal tram mare dam of Timoleon from which Bostpn and Lexington to get their so-called tainted blood. "Having shown how shockingly badly bred Jenny Cockracy is from an anglo-maniacal standpoint, it is very interesting to note that Orb3 winner of this years English Derby. In which he defeated Wool Winder, winner , of the St. Legcr, in which race Orliy did not start, and Rhodora, almost If not quite the best two-year-old lilly in England, trace in eight crosses to Jenny Cockracy. "Thus, Orby and Rhodora Rhoda B. Margerine Algerine Ahdel-Kader Rescue Berthune Jenny Cockracy. "All of which does not detract one iota from the merit of Orby and Rhodora, but shows how utterly fallacious and ridiculous is the claim that to produce high-class race horses it is necessary that every line shall trace to an English source and that they must not run to the woods or the cart, if you please. "Old Queen Mary, the dam of Bonnie Scotland arid Blink Bonny, and which divides with Pocahontas, the honor of being the greatest of all stud matrons, of which the correspondent of the Farmer and Breeder was so much enamored that he adopted her Bruce Lowe number No. 10 as his nom de plume, ran to the cart in just nine crosses, but that was an English and not an American cart which may make a difference. "Mr. W. Allison, the Special Commissioner of The London Sportsman, a man of broad and liberal views and almost if not quite the best authority in England on pedigrees, endeavored to purchase Hanover with all of his so-called tainted blood, for export to that country, saying he could hare won the English Derby. Failing in this ho did buy and export two of his sons, and not among the best of them either, in Han dOr and Handball, both of which had strong infusions of the so-called tainted American blood through their dams, in ad- dition to that they inherited through Hanover, so he evidently was not afraid of this so-called tainted but winning blood. "hi a recent issue of the Farmer and Breeder appears the following: " The London Sportsman says of the Cesarewitch, going up the Bushes Hill The White Knight passed Baltinglass and shortly afterward, took second place to Demure. He finished his race witli unllinching ganiencss, hut could never quite get on terms with Demure, which boat him three parts of a length. "Whereupon the aforesaid correspondent of The Farmer and Breeder, to belittle the American horse says: Possibly the rapid compounding at the Bushes in the Cesarewitch, of the favorite, Baltinglass, may have lceu due to his dams being one of those rugged meant ironically American mares. "As The Sportsman in its description of the race published In The Farmer and Breeder says nothing about Baltinglass compounding at the Bushes, it is possible that the wish was father to the thought in the mind of this writer. He was particularly unfortunate, however, in the selction of Baltinglass. to prove the inrcrlority of the American blood, as his fourth dam, Maiden, by glorious old Lexington, was the dam of Parole, which went to England and won the Newmarket Handicap, one and one-half miles, in which lie defeated Isonomy, the best horse in England; the City and Suburban Handicap, one and one-quarter miles, from eighteen starters; the Great Metropolitan Handicap, two and one-quarter miles; the Great Cheshire Handicap, one mile and one-eighth and 215 yards, carrying 134 pounds from a field of eight, and the Epsom Gold Cup, one .and one-half miles. "Maiden also produced Pappoose and Paw Paw, both winners In England; Parthenia, dam of Watershed, winner of the Cambridgeshire, and of RIz-pah, dam of Diakka, winner of nearly 0,000, and Reverra, thirteen wins in England." Maiden was likewise the dam of Perfection, which produced Saluda, the dam of Sandia, a two-year-old winner in England and of nearly 0,000, and Sibola dam or Baltinglass winner of the One Thousand Guin. eas, and second for the Oaks, which the best authorities agree she should have won. "There are some of the American families tracing to no English source, which have not in recent years produced any high-class horses and are apparently running out. The same thing is equally true of some of the English and Bruce Lowe families. It therefore follows that the most desirable stock for producing race horses are the repre- sentatives of families which are now producing high-class horses, such as the Black Sophia, Maria , West and Mannie Grey branches of the Dance family, regardless of whether they are of American or English . ancestry."
