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MORE ABOUT COLOR IN HORSE BREEDING In OIK of my previous articles I drew attention to the fact that of the numerous lines of Sloekwell only the branch established by Iloncastcr retained for a considerable time some of its original remark ¬ able vitality and I expressed the view that the consistent matings of chestnuts in subsequent gen ¬ erations may account for this stoutness Doncas tirs parents and his two grandsires The Baron and Tcddingtoii were chestnuts and in the next generation this edifice recived the further and most powerful support of the chestnut Thormaiiby the maternal grandsire of Bend Or whose parents and grandparents were all chestnuts The cooperation of Tliornianbvs blood with that of Stockwell tuny answer for the fact that Bend Or was an ever M much stronger individual than Doneaster In the third generation of SlockwulI Bomi Vista tlitrc was a further influx of chestnut blood but since Macaronis chestnut factors were nit of any hered ¬ itary strength these could not determine a fresh upward movement of the Bend Or line lineThe The weakness of Vistas bl K d in heredity also apimars from the surprising failure of Vistas two other great racehorses at the stud i e the bay Sir Visti by Barcahline and the bay Velasqiirz by Donovan the latter little short of classic form The StockwellThonnanby combination representing as it did the union of the most powerful chestnut elements of that period then in fifth generation of Stockwell was crowned so to speak by its alli ¬ ance with the chestnut Hermit the leading clement in the maternal brooding of reailiL the dam of Cyllone Thus we have this interesting evolution Foundation Stockwell second genera lini Bend or iStoclweIITiiormanby fourth generation Cylline StockwcllTlioniiunbyIIiMiiiit And so it ended for in subsequent generations Ormonde Orme Fly ¬ ing Fox the strength of this homogeneous edifice was seriously encroached upon by the dominant in linence of the Agnes and Gaiopin bleed In collabo ¬ ration these two heterocneous elements have cer ¬ tainly achieved much in the way of further Im ¬ proving tlie racing capabilities in this line but it cannot lie doubted that they completely destroyed its hereditary strength strengthThese These and similar observations which I have of ¬ fered in recent times have brought forth several inquiries from home foreign and Colonial bneders as to whether I propose decrying chestnuts as bv nature inferior to bays I feel somewhat uneasy about answering questions of this kind for there arc chestnuts which it would be absurd to regard as inferior to bays while others decidedly proved so I am speaking here of course of the stud achievements of real good chestnut turf performers There is in the long record of the English racehorse only one instance of consistent matings bctwen chestnuts iu four sulfsequent generations and as this sequence Lancaster Bend Or Bona Vista tvllene determined a gradual fresh rise of the line where ¬ as chestnut members of those branches of Stockwell which were handed on by bays almost invariably proved moderate sires I hold the view that pure brcil chestnuts are ever so much stronger than the extracted type that is to say chestnuts out of bay parents parentsOf Of course there are exceptions in the latter cate ¬ gory for Gallinute for Instance was an extracted chestnut bis sire Isonomy having been a bay ami his dam Moorhen a brown or black There is no denying that lie represented an accomplished nick letween Stockwell and Hermit with obvious pre ¬ dominance of the Hermit blood and though he has sired a great number of winners I doubt whether any of his sons will prove capable of handing on his line While no doubt can prevail that an accom ¬ plished sport between the Stockwell and Thor ¬ maiiby blood by way of unbroken color transmis ¬ sion may result in a superior individual the case of The Tetrarch is another iu point besides the aboyeiiieiitioneil one of Bend Or any singular in ¬ terference of either of these two ancestral factors with the blood of powerful bay ancestors is bound to encroach upon tlie hereditary strength of the line I may add here that The Tetrarcbs natural color is chestnut masked by the additional factor for grey He will not sire bays or browns to chest ¬ nut mares maresSuch Such interference of the chestnut element lould never prove detrimental if the chestnut element were equally strong in heredity to tlie bar From innumerable cases we know that it is decidedly weaker The earlier by a lucky shuttle of ances ¬ tral factors the chestnut element is eliminated from a compound in which the bay element is pre ¬ dominant the better for the breeding propensities of the progeny Once I was inclined to look upon the case of Roliert le Diable which is not capable of siring chestnuts though his grandam Rose of Lancaster was a sister to Bend Or as a phenom ¬ enal one rather than a normal but I had1 weight r cause to change my mind wlun some days ago l examined the records of the Paradigm and Sunshine lines of the No 1 family for in both these branchs I came across instances absolutely identical in their causts and the beneficial effect to that of Robert le Diable DiableParadigm Paradigm was an impure bay but from the facts that firstly those nine out of her thirteen offspring which either proved great racehorses or successful breeders were without exception bays or browns though five of them Lord Lyon Achievement C hevisaunee Cognisaiincu and Pa ratlin were sons sonsand and daughters of chestnut sires and that sic lly Paradigm llyParadigm only produced one chestnut i e Koiige Dragon by Windhonml a moderate customer the almost omnipotent influence of her bar element is quite selfevident That her chestnut element remained snUirdinafc Hi heredity became apparent from the fact that her daughter Paratlin though a produce of the chestnut JJlair Athol did not produce a single chestnut of merit for Light oLove a chestnut sister to Foot light by Cremorne proved a failure in every respect Considering the weakness of this chestnut blood there is nothing surprising in the fact that fim the hereditary constitution of Para tlins daughter Hliiiiiinata this chestnut clement was completely eliminated No wonder she became such an excellent broodmare Iu the Foot light branch this process of elimination of the chestnut element proceeded somewhat slower for Footlight provd an impure bay and amongst others produced in the chestnut filly Silver Thread a sister t Glare a moderate individual Glare on the other hand proved a pure dominant for bay and it is a matter of farreaching importance that Lady Light fout the dam of Prince Palatine is a pure dominant as well and a great broodmare at that whereas tin One thousand Guineas winner Flair is strongly imbued with chestnut blond and for this reason apiiarentlr a failure at the stud studSunshine Sunshine was a daughter of the chestnut Tlior manby and it is interesting to note that while the brown Sunray the bay Napoli the brown Helio scene and the bay Busliey Park proved successful either on the turf or at the stud her chestnut filly Sunshade by Springfield was a failure Also in this line the elimination of the chestnut blood was complete in second generation for loth Sunray and Napoli proved pure dominants for bar or brown Sumay was consistently mated with the impure Springfield a sou of tlie chestnut St Albans and Xapolls partners wen Springfield and the chestnut Bend Or Yet as I said there was not a single chestnut amongst their produce If Glare Lidy Liglitfjot llluminata Sunray and Napoli had not pnved such successful broodmares I would not at ¬ tribute the slightest importance to tlie complete elimination of the chestnut element from tholr hereditary constitution Jsut since these instances so strongly support the case of Robert le liah u member of the third No 1 line I do not think it can be denied that any elUciency of the blond of the chestnuts Thormaiiby and Plair Athol within such a iK werfiil bay element is of a perturbing nature Those direct offspring of Sunshine and Paraffin which did not possess these chestnut factors and thus come under the heading of what I term ex ¬ tracted chestnuts proved conspicuous failures Boulanger iu London Sporting Life
