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DERBY WINNERS THAT FAIL AS SIRES. Families that Flourish in Successive Generations While Others Melt Away. It is not every Derby winner winch has a BBCeaap fill career at the stud. The qualities that go to the making of a racer do not necessarily make a sire of the same animal, says a writer in the Fall Mall Oazcttc. Brace I.owe discovered that certain families were specially endowed with the faculty of producing winners, and horses capable themselves of producing winners. These he called "sire families." It is. therefore, interesting though not surprising, to find that the most conspicuous failures among the Derby winners now at the stud are outside the group of sire families, which consists of Nos. .:. s. 11. 12 and 14. The Derby horses to which I refer are Sir Visto and Common, both No. 4s: Jeddah. No. 1. and Sir Hugo. No. 19. Lowe himself declared the No. 4 family to be extremely effeminate: the statistics on which he based this conclusion, and those collected by Mr. Meek from I a much wider area, strongly bear out his view. It so happens that Rock Sand, for which August Kclniont gave 25,000. is a member of this famiiy. and one will, therefore, follow his career in America with all the greater curiosity. The figure system does not pretend to prove that a No. 4 sire is Inland to be a failure: all that it claims to show is that, arguing from past results, the probabilities are against his doing well at the stud. There have been, and there will lie. exceptions to the general rr.le. The most successful sire in South America at the present time *ls Orbit, sou of Prate, and he belongs *• the No. 4 line. However, the fact re-• naius that of the comparative failures among Derby winners, two belong to this group, whose chief characteristic is effeminacy. It is very unfortunate that Sir Visto himself has nor proved one of the exceptions. sou 01 Barcaldiue. he is one of the few sires at the stud tradeaj back to Match -m. This particular branch of the great thoroughbred family badly needs streugt belling. For generations its very existence has been threatened. It has produced only six of the Hi winners of the Derby, viz: Didelot 17!ti. Smolenslio 18U , Tiresias UsHti. West Australian ilv-,:;t. Blink Bonny tlS.".7i and Sir Visto UBS. Hut for the lucky -vent of Baivaldine it would practically have been extinct at the present time, for through that son of Solon we got Wolfs Crag. Marco. Morion. Winkfield and Freemason, as well as sir Visto. Marco has gtvea us Beppo. which is to commence his career as. a sire this coming season a: the Clasgow Stud Farm at Fntield and through Winkfield mow marly at the far endi. we get Winkfields Bride and I.achelors Bui ton. Bep|xi conies of the No. 1 family, which holds i.s own very well indeed as a producer of good sires: so that, apart from his own individual merits, which are considerable, be has much in his favor. Keirarded from the "Figure" standpoint. Baehe lors Kuttons prospects are not so good: but he is a horse of great character, so we may venture to hope that he will prove one of the exceptions. Winkfields Fride is. of course, in France. Apart from these sons and grandsons of Barcaldine, the Matchoiii family has representatives in Kings Courier a descendant of West Australian through Australian and Spendthrift!, and Australian Star. which i a great grandson of The Peer, sou of Melbourne. These two horses were imported from America and Australia respectively. For all prac tieal purnoses it may be said that the responsibility for the continuation of the family rests upon Deppo and KadieJors Button, for Sir Visto seems to be incapable of transmitting his own qualities to his offspring. The ase of Common is indeed a sad one. Immediately after he had won the St. Leger in MM, and so gained the Triple Crown." the late Sir Dlumlell Maple gae Lord Alingtou and* Sir Fred erlek Johnstone ."i.040 for him. The following dav .■sir Dltintlell was offered a substantial profit on his banafa by a foreign government, but he sent the irrnndilmiueiitl.v worded reply: "Knland requi :■. s Commons services." And. sure enough. our breeders willingly paid the fee of 2,bo jjuineas which was demanded. Now. fifteen years later, we find Common, whack la at the Egerton Stud. Newmarket, advertised at 0 only. Speaking from memory, only one of his offspring ever showed form wiliiJi inoRsureable distance of his own. I allude to Newsboy, which was unquestionably a wonderful two-yeai-old. So highly had he liecn triedthat there was talk of matching him at weight-for-sex against Pretty Polly. Why has Common failed: Are there any reasonable explanations ad-dueil.le apart from the one that he inherits the weakness of the No. 4 family? Ike eaae of Sir Hugo also gives rise to some lathee melancholy reflections. Though his defeat of La Fl-.he in the Derby occasioned the utmost a loni-hiiciit he was by no means a bad horse and his record waa good enough to warrant the fixing of his Minj lea at 150 guineas. He now commands niie- guineas only. It is just possible, however, that .ii the near future We shall see his daughlcr-in ceasMerahte demand. Fraak oill. one of the ■eel successful three-year olds on the American turf during the past season, is by the St. Simon horse. Collar, out of a Sir Hugo mare, and this has awakened breeders to the fact that there may be some virtue in the blood alter all. Both Hermit and Macaroni can be cited as Derby winners which earned the gratitude of all interested in the welfare of the thoroughbred by reasou of the super Continued ou sLktli page.,. DERBY WINNERS THAT FAIL AS SIRES. .Continued from first page. I excell -nee of their daughters. Nobody ever took the. Derby performance of Jeddah, the record "outsider." very seriously, and. though he began stud life at a fee of loo guineas, Mr. Larnnch soon realiz d the expediency of reducing it, and he is now advertised at fifteen guineas. When a horse goes to the stud he very quick ly finds bis true level. J be has accomplished big deeds on the turf his chances are. of course, all the greater at the outset: but he is not allowed to trade on his racing reputation very long, lie is judged purely by results. A long article might be written on the subject of horses which have, by sheer merit, forced their way into prominence as sires. The most notable examples at the present time are Gallinule, Desmond and Missel Thrush. No fee whatever was charged for Gallinule the first year or two that he was at the stud: ten years ago he was quoted at twenty-five guineas: he now com mands 200 guineas. Desmond has made headway very rapidly: he. too. stands at 200 guineas, and. like Callinule. has a "waiting list." Musel Thrush, which met with an accident in his early two-year-old lavs, and never appeared on a race couise. was a "nobody" three or four years ago, but is now run after at ninety-five guineas. If Lord Egre-mont. the Duke of Graftou and other noted breeders who flourished at the beginning of the nine teenth century, were to revisit the scene-; of their activity, they would stare in bewilderment at these figures. In their day a Derby winner commanded ten guineas, and no more, when he went to the stud. So recently M thirty years ago loo guineas was the absolute limit. That was the fee charged for Blair At hoi when he was at Cobham. For three or four years he was at the head of the list of winning sires. After his son Silvio had won the Derby and St. Laser, bis fee was raised to 200 guineas. Breeders with one accord shunned him forthwith, and they never patronized him again, even though his fee whs promptly put back to 100 guineas, and finally to 75 guineas. If Blair Athol were living at the present time he would easily command 300 or loo guineas. Spearmint starts stud life this next season at MM guineas, and Orby. who is also to go to the stud at once, will command 100 guineas or more. It is also very wonderful and amazing. Can one Im-surprised when one hears breeders for sale complaining that they cannot make the game pay.-
