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oh and " th the " II. to ll o1 of ! -of of jt 0i out rti tli the w ? of I? by on J st r; not j ai w Ik her di n I U tf la p v.- 0 Ji sc J " ol . J, " t d J J. vi S at j, t. e I f 11 In 1 i I j J f J i 1 ;1 l 1 v j I j j t , , i , i i 1 1 i i i OVERTURNING AN ENGLISH THEORY. As one of the rcMilfs or the victory of Herman B. Durveas Durbar II. in the Derby this year the British turf authorities will have to choose between L-hanging their definition of the term "thoroughbred confessing that a "cocktail" or "half-bred horse has won their most famous turf classic. Under rules governing registration in England Durbar cannot lie recorded in the stud book, nor can am- of his offspring or descendants gain admittance tothis registry of the. equine elect. Hence lie and they are not thoroughbreds from the English point view. The bar sinister in the pedigree of the Derby winner conies through his dam, the American-bred mare Armenia. She was by imported Meddler, out of Urania, by Hanover, out of Wanda, by imported Mortemer. out of Minnie Minor, by Lexington, out Julia, by imported Glenco, out of Sally Ward, by John R. Grytnes, out of Lisbon Maid, by Napoleon, of Fanny Maria, by Pucolet. Here the pedigree runs to the woods, like the pedigrees of so many of best early American race horses. Fanny Maria was a gray mare, owned nlxut 1S25 by Jessie Cage, Gallatin, Tenn. She was reputed to be by Faco-let, out of a mare by imported Stirling; next dam imported Madley, biit the last two crosses rest tradition only and are not in any or the older stud books. Bruce says: "This is one or the best racing families In the United States, though it can be traced rurther." Lisbon Maid, or Maid of Lisbon, as she was sometimes called, ran some good races at two mile heats and three mile heats in Tennessee and Alabama when she was Tour years old. She was a gray, like dain, and was lonled in 1S28. After her racing days were over she produced Maria Williams, a noted winner at two and three mile heats, by imported Leviathan; also the gray tilly Sally Ward, herself a winner. Francis Morris, of New York, who was instrumental in sending Pryor, Prioress and Lecompte to England in 1850, owned Sally Ward, and from her raised Fidelity, Miss Julia, Mary Evelyn and Throgs Neck, winners in heat races m the days of the oltl Fashion Course on Long Jslaud. Miss Julia, registered as Juila pasted into the possession of James S. What- AA son, of the Valley Brook Stud, in New Jersey, and for him she produced several Winners, including Julius, the brother to Minnie Minor; .Tubal and Hampton. Pierre Lorillard, distinguished as the owner of the only American-bred horse that ever won the Derby, owned Minnie Minor at his Haucocas Stud, in New Jersey, where she produced sixteen foals, one of which was Wanda. This lillv was among the best that Mr. Lorillard ever sent to the turf, having won many Important races before she was mated with the great Hanover, in 1891, and produced Urania, another stake winner well remembered by horsemen. El Kitson TVfed Urania, biit William C. Whitney was the breeder of Armenia, the dam of Durbar II. She was foaled In 1901. A family that lias produced winners in every generation for almost a century, with a Derby winner the top, is uot the kiud of material intelligent breeders like to discard, yet because Urania does not trace back In every line to sires and dams recorded In the English stuil book her whole family is. excluded. With the pedigree and performance of Durbar II. confronting them it is not strange that some of the English critics are advocating a change the rules of. registration. Writing in Bells Lite, Boulanger F. S. Becker has this to say of the Franco-American Derby winners breeding after drawing attention to the fact that Orby, too, carried the blood of Hanover: "This blood will, prove one of the most valuable in existence in: spite of the ban which has been put upon it by our turf legislators. Of course. Durbar It. s sire, Rabelais, was a great stayer and lias sired teveral like, himself, but it often has been asserted that even the most orthodox English blood is powerless against the adverse influence which emanates from untraceable female lines. My. readers ought to know by. now. that I always have opposed these ridic-; ulbus ideas, since I am convinced that over use of th6 fashionable" English bfoandd -is ; hound to produce, lnore . inferior results than occasional outcrosses with Inferior outside blood.. -.In asserting this : 1 did riot liiiik,-..;iri the first degree.- of such bloodV that Durbar II. . carries ln-his-" maternal breeding, but .since this instance lias, .now-proved so, .highly .satisfactory,. Eug-lish." breeders, Ijhope, will take to heart. the warning l:gave tlieiri, recently. They are;titveling-the wrong, roadi misguidetlf by the figure syjjin students, who labor under the idea that the 6uly way to achieve success Is by mathematical calculation. "Inbreeding by the .figure and other systems has undoubtedly assisted in fixing . family type, for in general appearance the modern race horse is beauty personified. But on the other hand, it has led to physical degeneration all round, and foreign horses -which, though imaginably ugly, possess those physical qualities without which the maintenance of a race is impossible have often been permitted to sit on them. "Bearing in mind the fact that all our classics and i other important races are open to any country, it is not possible, in my humble belief, to adhere to the i policy of retaining the international character of : English sport and excluding from the stud book i horses which have been able tti cope with and beat ; the home product in this country on the sole ground i that they do not trace back on sire,, or dams side to horses and mares that have been accepted in the earlier . volumes. The stud book was a national record only so long as foreign breeding, generally, and American breeding: in particular, had not reached a competitive standard.. "Once the foreign horse is admitted, and carries bit classic races, it cannot by fair reasoning be excluded from registration in England as well. If it Is excluded the purpose of thi-se races namely, to test the progress made in breeding becomes a farce. They would be races for stakes pure and simple, without having any influence upon the future of the thoroughbred." Breeder arid Sportsman. It is rather interesting to recall that within recent years English authorities have decried the .American thoroughbred, and their attitude is, or rather was, responsible for the stringency intro duced in respect to the new qualifications for registration in the Stud Book officially compiled by Weatherbys for the English Jockey Club. The . purity of the American-bred animal was brought into question, and although it is scarcely much, more than one hundred and fifty years since the first thoroughbreds were believed to Lave been traceable in Airierica, inbreeding, the mating of pure with Impure, and various other causes were assigned to show why the descendants of these original mesalliances should not be centered in the stud volumes. With the rights and wrongs of the subject it i necessary to deal, but turf history this present year is hiking a full and ample measure of re-vegne by the sequence of successes credited to American-bred stock tills season in England,- commencing with the victory of Ontrarii. by Delhi Gingham, to be followed by that of Jameson, by King James Alexandra, then Durbar II., by Ra-belais-Armenia, and now Broadwood, by Voter Wild Thynie, at Ascot. Of course, since Iroquois and Fox hall, many. good American horses have won big events in England. Mediant occurs to one as a case in point, so that it may seem no strange thing that this season there should seem to be a revival to testify to the nierit of the Trans-Atlautc equine. In Durban, at the June meeting. Camelford, by Greenari Verity, was a winner. When this horse was racing bore last winter, after winning over a sprint course, I suggested to his owner-trainer that he would prove to be .a far better winner as a stayer, and it was not necessary to wait long to see this forecast of bis possibilities verified. Similarly, when iriore than a year ago I .saw Gondolier, by Watercress, win his first race, when it was suggested that he "was stopplhg to nothing," it was my freely expressed conviction that he would prove-to be a good enough stayer to win over a distailce in the best of company, and in the interval he has proved to be the best horse in South Africa. Many horses are ruined by the failure of their trainers to give them .a real chance to find their forte and the best guide to that is to examine the breeding. There have been dozens of instances on the Durban track to my knowledge in recent years. Broadwood had no form worth talking about, but he had never previously had the chance to be seen at his best in a long distance event: perhaps also he wanted time to mature. Qiius in The Latest, Durban. Africa.
