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. COLIN AND THE TETRARCH RELATIVES. When in the Coventry Stakes at Ascot last vear The retraich took the lead from the start and won by ten lengths, lacing men and critics were over-lavish Iii their loud praise of the youngsters won deiful speed, and there were not a few who main tdlned that such a performance had never been seen on a race course before. Later, on reflection, they were forced to modify their exalted opinion, for, after all, Courageous and his other opponents in this race subsequently proved themselves to be a too medlcore lot to have given a true line for a demonstration of The Tetrarchs real class. Nobody could have been more interested iu the Individuality of Uapt. McCalmonts famous gray than myself, since for years prior to his appearance 1 had pleaded for the re-importation of this particular blood of Herod ,and I was, naturallv, pleased to find niy opinion as to its great value justified. However, I was not at all satisfied with this singular case, and therefore, sonic days ago attempted to find out something about the abilities of other gray horses which may have inherited similar merits to those possessed by The Tetrarch from an Identical course. His coat color traces back through Le Samaritain. Le Sancy, and Gem of Gems to Strathconan, and to find a reliable clue I looked up the racing records of Strathcouans gray-colored sons and daughters. Amongst these was Lord Zetlands gray filly. Griselda, and it Will be interesting to kiiow that her racing records contain a performance which puts that of The Tetrarch in the Coventry Stakes completely iu the shade. She won, in 1880 ,tlie Monday Nursery Handicap, at the Newmarket Second Oe tober meeting, by eight lengths, beating twentv-fqiir competitors, Including Ayrshires dam. Ata lanta. I lost no time, of course, in extending Griseldas pedigree, and then her extraordinary speed puzzled me no more. Her dam, Perseverance, was a gray daughter Of Voltigeur out of the roan-colored Spinster, by Flatcatcher out of Nan Dar-rell. Perseverance, therefore, was three-parts sister to Vedette, Flatcatcher taking the place of Bird-catcher in her pedigree. The mating of the gray Perseverance with the gray Strathconan resulted hi the gray Griselda, which therefore carried parla of that blood of Le Sancy and St. Simon which undoubtedly contributed considerably to the gigantic individuality of these two. great sires. Put to the stud, Griselda was mated in 1S91 with Springfield, aud in due course produced a chestnut filly, which was named Pastorella. Though not having inherited her dams tremendous speed to its full extent, Pastorella was a surprisingly quick filly all the same, . for she won both the Zetland Stakes at York and the Thirty-seventh Ascot Biennial Stakes by three lengths. Such early maturity usually leads to loss of form, and Pastorella was no exception to the rule. As a three-year-old sie ran only once, and that was iu Galeottias One Thousand Guineas, in which she was unplaced. Subsequently at the stud she did not at once justify her suprenie breeding; and therefore was drafted out from Lord Zetlands stud in 1S9S, and sold to America in foal to Kendal. But there she did not belle her descent, for iii 1905 she bred Colin to Commando,, which became a winner of roughly 80,000 in stakes, and was generally admitted, to be the speediest horse ever seen oh the other side of the Atlantic. Of her later produce, the bay lilly, Our Virginia, by Peter Pan. foaled In 190!, was sold to the Argentine, and there won this year in the colors of tlie Ayacucho Stud a number of Ini-. portant races. This interesting breeding story begins with Griseldas dam three-parts. sister to St. Simons grand sire. Vedette, continues with Strathconan. an important element in the breeding of The Tetrarchs grand sire, Le Sancy, and concludes with Colin, which rightly deserves to be numbered with the phenomenal race horses. To look upon it from another point of view, we find in Collns maternal breeding esseiitial parts of the elementary matter in the pedigrees of Le Sancy and St. Simon, the greatest sires of modern times, as well as part of the blood whick appears to have been instrumental iii the making of The Tetrarch.. Last, but not. least, there are two individual performances, i.e.. those of the gray The Tetrarch in the Coventry Stakes, and of the gray Griselda in the Nursery Handicap at Newmarket, which stand out as two of the most conspicuous races in the records of the two-year-olds. . I welcome this subject for the further purpose of proving that the gray "color" is not coupled with other characters of the same origin, and this, for the simple reason that the gray "color is not a color at all, but a character of quite a, different, or to be more correct, abnormal nature. Gray coat "color" denotes that the true color, thafT is to sav. the bay, brown, black, or chestnut, is fniaskud by the presence of the factor for gray, but certujaW not, as is generally presumed, elinfjnated". Ih-eeuX ers, therefore, labor under a delusion in preferring Rol Herodes grays to his chestnuts or bavs. TheriB cannot be the slightest ulfference in constitution amlB merits between these varieties, as I am certain next! years events will prove. "Boulanger," in LoridoiB Sporting Life.
