view raw text
ANALYSIS OF THE ANCESTRAL LINES OF REGRET AND ANDWATERBLOSSOM WATERBLOSSOM By DR M M LEACH Tliu race for the Kentucky Oaks which is to lie decided today appears at the present writing to Imvo narrowed down to a match between T C McDowells Waterblossom and tlie Derby heroine Regret The added money for the race is only the comparatively insignificant sum of 500 which seems hardly just when compared with the 10000 added to the Derby and it would appear that a race devoted solely to the gentler sex should IK at least of half the value given for the free for all In England for instance the value of tho Oaks is sometimes in excess of the value of the Derby and it is rather hard fb understand just why racing associations in this country pay so small attention or rather feel a disinclination to advance the interests of the iillie We must have broodmares good ones otherwise the business of tho turf could not be succetsfully kept going Our tillies are every bit as worthy of consideration as are the colts Of course lillios can compete iu the Derby and successfully too as witness the IHrformance of Regret but this is not according to the wellestablished rule A lilly race how ¬ ever carrying half the added money given to the Derby would servo as a great incitcn cut for owners and breeders to develop 111 He of the highest class This however by way of suggestion what we must deal with here is tho present presentAs As I said above miles some Zeppelin bomb is dropped from the skies the issue for the Kentucky Oaks of 1915 appears to be a match Itetwcuu the crowned queen of the east and the peerless heroine of the Ashland Oaks OaksHas Has it come to pass that the eastern invaders are to appropriate all of the spoils I prefer to think not Glad as are all true sportsmen to wish the plucky owner of the Derby heroine all the success which should attend and has attended his most worthy efforts to carry off the best the blue grass can afford Yet we arc all anxious to see the old Commonwealth of Kentucky put up the batttle of her life and in Waterblossom I think It eg ret will 11 ml an opponent in every way worthy of her steel and one which is better quicker and surer ou her feet than any the eastern damsel has yet dealt with withThe The pedigrees of both judging on the balancing of the blood lines plan of mating are most at ¬ tractive and it is hard to1 say which works out bent Regret is bred on the orthodox plan of Eclipse lo Ileroil mating and u glance at her pedi ¬ gree discloses that she strains three times to the best of all American families through Hen Brush Itiley and her own line to Maria West and also that she is backed by the speedy blood of Alarm and that notoriously fast line of Mannie Gray In fact for speed lines and remembering that she comes of the allconquering Bonnie Scotland house Kegret will indeed be hard to beat beatOn On the other hand Waterblnssotn although her sire and dam strains to Eclipse in tail male both the gramldam of her sire and her own granddam are daughters of the Herod horse Sir Modred and the introduction of this cross coupled in this case always spells speed and there is an old adage amongst horsemen that one of the high roads to success in horse breeding is to return the best blood sireJn in the dam to the best blood in the sire Jn dissecting the pedigrees of these two great lillies 1 am at once struck with the similarity of their top crosses or rather the appearance of thu names of the same famous horses in their top lines descending though they do from widelydiffer ¬ ent heads and spring from entirely different sources sourcesWinterblossoms Winterblossoms dairi Is by the St Simon horse Bassotlaw and this St Simon cross bar Galliard son of St Simons sire Galopln is lacking in Ke ¬ gret which also fails to show any Sir Modred this Herod blood however is offset by her HerodHan ¬ over strain Albia second dam of ISou Brush sire of Broomstick is by Alarm and Alarm also appears in the pedigree of Waterblossom through Roke grandnm of Waterboy sire of Waterblossom Man nie Gray grandam of Hamburg was by Enquirer as was Napa ancestress of Watorblossom and Nupas dam was Bandana by Bonnie Scotland as was Bramble graudsire of Broomstick Kegret also shows another cross of Bonnie Scotland in her makeup by way of Bourbon Belle dam of Hanover and the double infusion of this line in Kegrets pedigree is offset by other strains to Queen Mary besides the Banadana cross through the Queen Mary in Watercress and the Blair Athol strain which is introduced into Waterblossoms pedigree by way of Marqiiesa dam of Bassetlaw I trust you follow me it is rather intricate but there is the gist of it both fillies are strongly fortiiled with the blood of Queen Mary both show the Hying idood of Alarm Enquirer appears in either case and each has an ample supply of Herod blood close to the surface and both show tho Matchem cross Regret through Ivy Leaf dam of Bramble and Lady Keel daughter of Fellowcraft dam of Hamburg Waterblossoms Matchem comes in via Itapid Rhone and Waverly is the sire of Waterboys third dam Kokee KokeeAnother Another point of interest is the pair trace to two of the best families to be found In the American Stud Book regret to Maria West the genuine out and out best of all of the American families which do no trace to an imported sourcct and Waterblossoms runs to Vandals dam this the tap familyKegret root of the Ixivity family Kegret will be titled lor her engagement by that past master of the east James Itowe whose horses have a habit of winning races at the first second and even third time of asking and Vaterblossom is in the hands of the most competent of all train era of the west Maj T C McDowell I suppose Notter will be astride the chestnut and Martin will pilot the brown Can you split cm I cant so I suppose the result can cud iu nothing but a dead heat
