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THE INFLUENCE OF COLOR IN THOROUGHBREDS I was very much interested not Ions since In reading an Instructive article from the pun of Dr L K Ilirshlierg of Johns Hopkins on the color scheme In horses Dr Hirshberg quotes freely from the writing1 of Mr F S liecker Boulanger the special commissioner of the London Sporting Life and I was surprised that anyone who writes so authoritatively and is possessed of such a vast store of knowledge pertaining to the horse should lie guilty of so many inaccuracies and misstatoments j to which I shall have occasion to refer later along j in this article Mr Becker according to Dr Hirshberg has made j the daring prophecy that Mr Itclmonts good horse Tracery will never sire a chestnut Time of c course will prove the correctness of this hut in t the meantime I am forced to take issue with Mr j Becker from the fact that Tracerys Idother Trap i U ck is a chestnut and the dominant force for I hay and brown does not yet seem to he firmly established in the family and It is certain as any t hing that some of Tracerys offspring will strain 1 back to the chestnut Sainfoin sire of Hock Sand Hock Sand himself was a St Simon all over i moulded and patterned on true St Simon lines anil I or this reaon I should expect the Influence of the 1 Wclback sultan in most instances to predominate I nit as Dr Hirshberg truly says the chestnut coat i is liable to crop out unexpectedly after having lain i dormant for a number of generations iind for this i reason and the fact that Tracerys graiidsire is a chestnut I shall expect to see pure chestnut foals 1 by him Had Hock Sand himself proved a pure lominant the likelihood of Tracerys begetting chestnuts despite his Bend Or descent cn the dam side would have been materially lessened but we all know that Hock Sand did sire chestnuts and so in my opinion will his son Tracery Dr Hirshlierg is author of the astonishing state i ment that chestnut is the most common color among race horses Surely the doctor must he in error Since the days of its inauguration in 17SO lie Kpsom Derby has been won just one hundred lines by hays and browns thirtythree times i ij chestnuts and twice by grays jnstnvus in S21 and Tagalie in lf12 and once by a tlack Smoleiisko SntxsiixmZ IK le er las come one hundred and seven times to he bays and browns twentysix times to the chestnuts twice have flic treys scored on Don casters town moor and the race lias only once icen won by a black If Dr Ilirshborgs statement was true the chestnuts have made hiit a poor show ¬ ing alongside their darker lined bretherri To con ¬ vince myself that the doctor was quite off the niHik I picked up Vol 0 of the stud book opened its pases at random and totalled up the number of bays browns aiid chestnuts appearing in fifty of its pages The result works out as follows 244 bays and browns 12 chestnuts greys and 11 lilacks probably most of the latter are really browns Therefore the chestnuts aronly a little more than half as numerous as are the bays and browns Not satisfied with this test I turned to Vol 22 of the Khglish Stud Book the fifty pages giving a result of 244 bays and browns SO chest ¬ nuts 7 greys or roans and 4 blacks From this it would appear that only one quarter of Kuglish Itred blood stock are chestnut coated and instead of the chestnuts gaining ground they appear to be losing it for out of the last twenty winners of the Derby onlv three Orby Cicero and Jeddah have been chestnuts and only two winners of the St Ieger during the same period were chestnuts and instead of tiro bays and browns disappearing 1 am inclined to think it will lie the chestnuts which are to go Of course many of the rpceht winners of Englands greatest classics are descendants of St Simon anil Galopin and this in a large measure accounts for their coloring but even in the Stock well era from lS itlSO the advantage was not with the chestnuts During this period 7 chestnuts each won the Derby and St Ieger as against thir ¬ teen winners of either race for the bays and browns Of late years Stockwell even seems rather to have lost his identity for tale male descendants i of his which have won classic races in recent years such as Black Jester Tracery Minoru Woolwindor Hock Sand Lcmlurg and Durbar II are all bays or browns brownsI I am quite in accord witfi Dr Hirshberg when he states that on the face of the returns it looks as j if a sire that could thus control color was likely also to dominate in other characteristics at least to a great extent but the statement of Prof Andonon of the Kentucky State University and quoted by Dr Hirshherg that there is no evidence that points of value are in any way connected with j inheritance of coat color wont wash I have cited you tin case of Hock Sand controlled by the St Simon inllilence and then there is Luke MeLuke a thorough Trenton resembling not in the least his chestnut sire ritimus and from long observa ¬ tion 1 must cast my lot with Mr Becker who says coat color is transmitted with other character istics mental and physical and that it affords a valuable guide by which hereditary traits may be disclosed and selective breeding practiced with the best prospects of success I cannot however side with Mr Becker in his contention that the j chestnut coat denotes softness Stoekwell and his son Blair Athol were l oth chestnuts and I have never heard of any one accusing them of showing the white feather That good gajne Australian I race horse Trafalgar is rather a dull colored I chestnut as is his sire AValhue and it was simply Trafalgars gauieness that won for him Pretty 1oliy and Bachelors Button were chestnuts the thelittle little red horse Aristides Ten Broeeks conqueror was a chestnut as were Great Scot the Australlan I bred winner of the Viceroys Tup Thornmnby win ¬ ner of the Derby in ISlil and his crandsire Pan taloon Then there are others in Doiieaster Ted dingtou and Salvator and had there been a weak spot in Salvators make up I think the old sway back Tenny could have been trusted to find it out Hanover and his ancestor Glencoe were chest nuts and in the face of all this it will never do to write the chestnuts down as soft hearted heartedii Dr Hirshberg is again in error when he cites St Simons son Persimmon as a pure dominant t for buy Tliij best of the get of the late King Edwards tlrst Derby winner are undoubtedly bays but Persimmon silw got chestnuts plenty of them Xinfandel a thundering good race horse and winner r of the Ascot Gold Cup wax a chestnut but his j color no doubt was responsible for his failure an a i sire Two chestnut sons of Persimmon Sea King and All Gold lire now advertised for public ser vice in thlx countrty InUh nru beautifully bred and 1 I should reel much wore confidence In their success successas s as stallions if their coat color WHP of a different t shade Sea King is half brother to Pietermarltz Pietermarltzburg burg and brother to Sea Prince and the dmn is Sea i Air by Isoiiomy Persimmon therefore falls 5 where St Simon scores for Pletermnritzburg was a i buy i grand race horse and an unqualified success s as a hire fit Argentina During the summer of 1812 I purchased Sea Prince for export to Australia and a lovelv iiK illil Hoping fellow he was but t cursed as is the c c With number of his clan clanwith with a pain in his temper Koa Irlliun could have e won the MellKturne Cup but he would not pnly to o come out a few days later and carry off the Wil lluiiistowii Cup in most taking style battling out a a routing finlxh after having had all the bad luck in u tlie race and I shall wuteh his stud career with u givat dcnl of Interest especially as lie is a chest ¬ n nut The bay Your Majesty son of Persiriimon is a already a stud success as the sire of Princess Dor r rie and 1 do not think there will be any shortcoming o on the part of the bay Prince Palatine which I t take to be the best of all Persimmons sons As sonsAs far as niy researches go I fail to find any g great nunilxjr of dominants which have done stud d duty in this country Imported Leamington was o one and imported Bonnie Scotland I think an ¬ o other and I have never yet seen a chestnut by Ben 1 Brush Imported Sain which for his opportun ¬ i ities must be reckoned the most successful stallion living today in North America is so far as I am aware a pure dominant as is bis sire St Serf a l son of St Simon Barcaldine sire of Salns dam The Task however was not a dominant for h he sired the chestnut mare Mavoureen dam of Voter VoterHanovers Hanovers case is a peculiar one He got more good bay and brown colts than chestnuts none of v which of either color l ore any striking resemblance to their sire Hamburg and Handsome were brown Buck Massie Ben Holladay and Yankee are bays and l Halma almost a black The best of Hanovers c chestnut colts lire Handspring Hand Or Compute a and The Commoner Hie majority however of Hanovers great producing daughters are chestnuts 1 the proportion being eight to three but the prob ¬ able best of tho lot Uhoda B dam of Orby and Ithodora was a brown Dissembler dam of Phau ton and Winning Witch Is a bay and Sister Jose ¬ 1 phine Xealons dam is given as a black The chest ¬ nuts comprise Ilandspun Tanyas dam Teas Over dam of Dick Welles and Ort Wells Lady Sterling J Sir Martins dam Algie M Miss Hanover Sweet Homespun and Lrania Hanovers daughters to use a homely expression favor their sire far more than do his male offspring which is no doubt due to the feminine characteristics of Glencoe The color scheme works out right enough here Hanover takes his color from Jlencoe emphasizing Dr Hirshbcrgs statement that the sorrel coat also j has a way of cropping out unexpectedly after hav ¬ ing been covered up for generations The chest ¬ nut Miss Ellie Aeronauts dam is a case in 1 point Of her first thirty ancestors only two are the arethe samo coUnsa5ihers lf Hanover then great stallion as lie undoubtedly was was neither a pure dominant in fact I never heard of a pure dominant for chestnut nor did lie get colts which resembled him in make and shape something rather unusual in a sire of such ex ¬ ceeding merit meritThe The chestnut Bend Or in England was unable to fix the color of many of the best of his get Such as Ormonde Martagon Laveno Orvieto Hapallo and Ornament Sceptres dam were bays due I suppose to the Macaroni infusion What a wonder ¬ fully successful cross was this Bend Or Macaroni blend and 1 think it would have well repaid the first Dike of Westminster to have bought up all the Macaroni mares offered for sale saleNeither Neither Domino nor his sou Commando were cap ¬ able of controlling color Commando is especially lacking in this respect Celt Lltimns Peter Quince Superman and Hippodrome are all chest ¬ nuts Peter Pan a bay and Colin a brown rather conclusive evidence that Commando was dominated by the pure English blood that tlowed through the veins of Iiis mates The brown coloring is absent even in the double Dominos such as I Itimus am Hippodrome The inference is therefore it the color scheme lie any guide that the excellence of the sons of Commando came rather from the dam than the sires side of the house The bay Broom ¬ stick is another which breeds all colors Regret is a chestnut as is the Two Thousand Guineas winner Sweeper II This however was to be expected as Havello his dam foaled the chestnut Frank Gill to the cover of the bay Collar Whisk Broom is a chestnut out of the chestnut mare Audience which comes of a line of chestnuts sired by bay horses demonstrating the fact that this line owes much of its excellence to Maggie B B daughter of the imported chestnut horse Australian and to the chestnut Glencoe sire of Maggie B Bs granddam Magnolia MagnoliaFrom From my point of view this is by odds the best family tracing to an imported mare in the stud book and the stud successes and great racing merit of Its chestnut members goes a long way towards disproving Mr Beckers contention that thi chestnut coat denotes softness Spendthrift softnessSpendthrift a chestnut sired his three best Kingston Lamplighter and Hastings all browns from imported bay mares emphasizing the control ling inllueuce of the purebred imported mare Everything being equal I am a firm believer in the dominant male influence However when a stallion whose pedigree exhibits lines of blood trac ¬ ing to obscure sources is mated with a mare of pure origin the coat color of the mare in the majority of instances prevails Domino his sons and his grandsons bear witness to this Hastings a brown sired his best Fair Play a chestnut from the im ported chestnut mare Fairy Gold Havello a chest nut produced the chestnut Sweeper II to the cover of the bay Broomstick Spendthrifts case has already been noted The coat color of Salvidere son of the bay Belvidere was an inheritance from his chestnut maternal line Whisk Broom inherited his coat color from the same source and other famous race horses and stud matrons coming from this line which show the chestnut coat are Hed and Blue her daughter Blue Girl Sallie McClel land Sallie of Navarre Saratoga Belle Fayette Audience Hamburg Belle winner of the Adelaide Cup In Australia etc etcThe The stronger personality if I may be permitted to use the expression seems to control the color and likely enough many other valuable attributes as well Sir DIxon and his brother Helvidere were however bays and members of the Maggie B B line and their bay coloring is no doubt due to the Leamington influence The chestnut however soon reasserts itself as in the case of Sir Dixons chestnut daughter Audience and Belvideres chest nut son Salvidere SalvidereIndividuality Individuality and purity of lineage it would appear are the main factors in reproducing color This of course is more evident here in the United States than it is in Lngland for in many instances Americanbred stock traces to impure sources whereas all of the Englishbred stock eligible for registration in the English general stud book is clean bred Coat color 1 am positive is intimately connected with tlie inheritance of points of value and I should feel no hesitancy in predicting success for tlie off spring of famous horses which exhibit a like coat color and other general characteristics Reasoning on these lines the success of the bay sons and daughters of Tracery is already assured but I should look askance at bis chestnut offspring should he sire any such and the chestnuts are practically certain to fail in some particular either as race horses stallions or broodmares Just a word and I am done Students of pedigree owe a large debt of gratitude to Mr William Alli son for attaching the colors and age of the various horses whoso names appear in his tabulations of the Derby St Lcger and Oaks winners at tin end of his highly instructive book The British Thorough bred Ilorse and I think a go xl purimse wonld be served if In all the pedigree tabulations which are published by our turf journals the year of foaling and the color for at least four generations back were glveu M M LEACH
