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LESSONS FROM ENGLISH RACING. That tin* lino of Eclipse now includes all but a trifling percentage of the thoroughbreds of England in sufficiently well known. The line of Mateheni, in spite of its prominence in the first half of the nineteenth century, is now reduced to obscure individuals. The Herod line, with its great American members from Glencoe to Hamburg, was allowed almost to run out in England, when the recent importation of Koi Herode from France, followed by his great son, The Tetrarch, gave It new footing. Then- remain the descedants of Eclipse, to which it is convenient to refer under the subdivisions of those great individuals in the history of breeding —Blaekloek. Touchstone, Stockwell and Isonomy. It occurred to me that it would be interesting to determine the relative prominence of these lines among the latest winners of the English turf, particularly as nothing of the kind is set forth in the usual record*. At the beginning of 1910 the annual tables of the sires of winners -and the sires of their dams, with the comparative winnings in each division, were published in London by the periodicals devoted to English breeding. It is a time-honored custom. It gratifies and rewards the owners by spreading the fame of their stallions and their mares; but in itself it reveals nothing of the secret factors that produced the results. Limiting myself to the task of ascertaining the relative prominence of the different lines, I have examined each individual stallion in those tabulated lists with the object of comparing their descent in tail male. The evidence thus collected shows at a glance the culminated tendencies of the last few decades of English breeding. It will be a surprise, I think, to American breeders to realize the dominant position now occupied by the Blaekloek strain. Among the nineteen sires whose offspring in 1915 won more than 5,000, the Blaekloek blood divides the leadership almost equally with that of Stock-well. The latter won 23,190, the former 10,035; but there were sixty-five Blaekloek winners against fifty -eight Stockwells. When the sires of dams are considered, the disparity is so great that the Black-lock horses stand by themselves. Their offspring won 25,885, but the winnings of mares by Stock-well sires did not go beyond 3,845. In the matter of two-year-old winnings the Blaekloeks again opened a tremendous gap; their winnings were 0,850 against 7,490 by the Stockwells. Yet two of the greatest sires in England at sprinting distances. Polymelus and Orby, are in the Stockwell line. It is not to be inferred that they do not also shine by reason of their stamina. In the division of stayers, of the sires of winners at ten furlongs and over, the Blaekloek sires once again overtop the Stockwells by the number and record of such horses as St. Frnsuuin, Collar, Santoi, The White Knight, compared with Radium of Stockwell descent. Desmond, which leads every other sire of two-year-old winners by more than 0,500 is all hut entitled to be added to the ten-furlong class of the four Blaekloek sires just named. In the same class are Dark Ronald and Spearmint of the Touchstone line. To tabidate for handy reference the nineteen sires of winners of 5,000 and over according to their descent in tail male: 5S winners by 7 Stockwell sires won 23,190 I5 " " 7 Blaekloek " " 210,035 28 " " 2 Touchstone " " 80,685 18 « " 2 Isonomy " •* 64,615 « * « 1 Herod " " 16,925 These sires, or at any rate the first eleven in the list, made the following winnings, which I have divided lie twee n their two-year-olds and their older offspring: 1 Iolymelus 4 2-yr.-olds 51495 6 others 3,195 2 D. Ronald 2 " 1,485 9 " 59,830 3 Sundridge 2 " 20,225 12 " 32,230 4 Desmond 6 " 38,880 4 - 5,585 5 Llangibby 0 " 8 " 42,685 6 St. Frus in I " 10.400 4 " 30,170 7 Orby 4 " 21,995 4 « 15,656 I Symington 5 •• 5.180 12 " 19,785 9 Valens 3 " 7,555 2 " 15,825 10 Fariman 5 " 18,035 5 " 3,895 11 Santoi 0 " 10 " 21,095 The sires of winning two-year-olds of 1915 stand in this order of winnings above 0,000 1 -Desmond; 2 Orby; 3 Sundridge; 4 Fariman; 5 rolymelus; 6 Roi Herode; 7 Chaucer; 8 St. Frusquin; 9 Bayardo. The Blaekloeks are Nos. 1, 3, 7 and 8. Isonomy, Herod and Touchstone are represented by Nos. 4, 6 and 9. The other two are Stockwells. When the sires of the winning broodmares are compared, the mares whose offspring won 5,000 and over, the result is as follows: 49 mares by 7 Blaekloek sires won 25,785 41 " " 3 Isonomy " " 112,820 21 " " 4 Stockwell " M 83,845 28 " " 2. Touchstone " " 49,795 These sixteen sires of broodmares stand in the following order: 1 Persimmon, 4,615. 2 St. Hilaire, 6,680. 3 Gallinule, 8,175. 4 Velasquez, 3,175. 5 Isinglass 2,895. 6 Hackler, 2,085. 7 Wildflower, 1,750. 8 St, Serf, 7,715. 9 Melton, 3,875. 10 Orvieto, 3,340. 11 C.vllene, 1,515. 12 Donovan, 9,355. Then Matchmaker, Ayrshire, St. Simon, Meddler, each ■bore 5,000. The Blaekloeks are in heavy type. The object of this brief analysis will have been attained if, at a time when the importation of English thoroughbreds is exceptionally brisk, the American breeder shall realize the modifying influence which this diffusion of the Blaekloek blood is sure to exert on the future of breeding. At the moment, Iolymelus, a horse of Stockwell descent, has been for two successful years the leading sire of English winners. His dam and his granddam were both by Touchstone sires. His pedigree lias not received any direct addition from a horse of Blaekloek descent in seventy years. But already his greatest son. deeply inbred though he is to two great members of the Touchstone line. Hampton and Hermit, is akin to the Blaekloeks through his maternal grandsire, St. Hilaire. — A. A. Wheeler in San Francisco Breeder and Soprtsman.
