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ENGLANDS FOUR LEADING MALE LINES. Now that another fiat-racing season is over and done with, it is interesting to- examine the list of winning stallions in order to see how the chief lines have come out. Reference is, of course, made hero to descent in tail-male, and for convenience I will not depart from sucli well-known landmarks if I may use the term in connection with thoroughbreds as Blacklock. Touchstone, Birdcatcher. and Melbourne. To those four celebrated stallions trace back at all events all the twenty-one leading sires of the past season. Those that are familiar witli the history of the present-day thoroughbred will see at a glance from this that the twentv-one most prominent stallions, each of whom has been credited during the season with G,000 sovereigns or over, trace back either to Eclipse or to Matchem. There is once again no stallion of Herod descent in the male line among them, owing to tho regrettable mishap which prevented The Tetrarch from pursuing his victorious career of the previous season, but although not this time in so high a position last season Rol Herode sire of The Tetrarch stood tenth in the list of winning stallions Mr. Kennedys French-bred gray stallion still occupies a fairlv high place. Looking through the list I gather that R01 Ilerodes exact position is thirtieth, a vcrv good showing when one considers what a tower of strength he was deprived of bv the disappearance of The Tetrarch from the racecourse. With such smart juveniles to Roi Ilerodes credit as Bethlehem, An-tipas, and Archelaus he has shown us clearly enough that he is a stallion of great excellence, "and the stakes won by his stock amounted to considerably over 4.000 sovereigns. No fewer than ten or the twenty-one leading stallions trace back in the male line to Blacklock, eigiit or them going back via St. Simon and the other two via Speculum, which, like Galopin, was a son or edette. St. Simon himself no longer appears as n winning stallion, but he is well represented br six of his sons in William the Third, Desmond dead, Chaucer, St. Denis, Rabelais, and Simon Square, and also by two of his grandsons in Your Majesty sou of Persimmon, and St. Amant. The she of St. Amant. rare old St. Frusquin. died last August, but he, too, has a number of good winners to bis credit, and although not of enough money to give him a place among the leaders he comes out in the hrst thirty. The two stallions of the Speculum branch of Blacklock that make up tho tale of ten are Siindridge now in France, which goes hack to Speculum through Ampliion, and Santoi. which traces oV e-vIa 9."eo"K Holiday and Hagioscope. The fl A,!,,on, 11IU! 1S Prosperous all the world over that the doings of its present representatives at the stud need not he hero enlarged upon. Neither does the branch of the Speculum line established bv Siindridge require notice, tor the latter was last season third of all the winning sires with a total of nearly 19,000 sovereigns to his credit. Himself in I-ranee, he has left behind him a number of distinguished sons to do duty at the stud, inclusive of Sunstar a host in himself. Sunder, etc. The Hagioscope branch of Speculum has achieved the most of its success through the doings of sons and naugliters of Santoi, whose winning representatives i.mmMPCSil,rs 11,0 ,!lst Ktaso" -eluded such piominent older horses as China. Cock. Fiz Yama. IU toi, and Santair, also a smart juvenile in Ladv or Asia, fcantoi is a grandson or Hagioscope, which has several sons at the stud, amongst which Uncle Mac and Lauriscope stand out prominently. Uncle X 0? Santoi0 1S U ,ntl,Ur 10 Q,,eCn8 B,rth,lay irl27C nrf oll!y V stallions in the leading twen J -one coining in the direct male line from Stock-well, the famous grandson or Irish Birdcatcher. but IT outnumbered by the members of the Isonomy or nnl"iTT-,1",i"eIV."r V1 filnV- which has fourrepre-Jl , Vs t,e Io;,Ii" division, the Stock wells nevertheless make a brave show with Polymelus and hi Tw 1 1 rst,,""" "f this pair stands ...it bj himself at the head of the winning list and Cicero comes seventh. Both are sons of the ex IMtrlated yllene and go back to Stockwell. there fore via Bonn Vista. Bend Or. and Doucaster. Of the stallions belonging to the Sterling line of Bird-catcher John o Gaunt. White Eagle, and Llangibbv airV?nsfA,t,I.e ?roat soniy, while Eager which died in 1910 is by Sterlings other son. Enthusiast on which Tom auiion stole the Two Thousand Guir.-nhi.S fmm Fml 1"arrett on Donovan. Od.N of S, to 20 were laid on Donovan at tlu start and floored by the narrow margin of a hear1 Representatives of the great rival line of Touci-stone are only three as far as the first twenty-one are concerned but they conic out well enough witn !! t!1";! Symington tenth, and D.uk Ronald sixteenth. Spearmint, or course is .1 member of the Carbine Jlusketl branch, and goes back to louchstoue through other channels than Symington and Dark Ronald. Boll, r tliee ar" 1 T.IZ ATr ,"f IIi"ltV. and trace t. Touchstone via I.oid Uirden and Newmiiister. This brings us tj l,a "f tIu nineteen stallions of Eclipse descent lhe Matchem line, although it has numerous horse at the stud in the shape of descendants of Solon and his son, Barcaldine. gets into the leading twenty-one only by aid of the branch established bv Marco. That celebrity himself stands fifteenth on the list, and twentieth place is taken bv bs son. ItcpiM. Another of Marcos sons. Marcoil. is not .far behind, and it is plain that we must look uialulv to the Inaiich or Marco to carry 011 the Barcaldine ,Ime or Melbourne In this country, although there -ire .some useful stallions among the representatives of ?:ic y."r S0,.YUf, IrcaI1i"- as Wlnkfield and Wolfs Crag. "Vigilant" in Loudon Sportsman
