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CHESTNUTS BY ISINGLASS WERE FAILURES. Mr. Longs letter about Deadlock, the dam of Isinglass, has set me to thinking, as I have often thought before, of the stud career of Isinglass, which was certainly not equal to his racing career, though he sired a fair number of really good winners in his time, and through Swynford the line seems certain to continue. That color carries with it various other qualities I have never doubted, though no one has reduced this to anything like an exact truth: and in the case of Isinglass it was almost a certainty that any pale chestnut son or dauchtcr of his was of small account. His elder brother, Islington, was of this color, and immeasurably inferior to him, in addition to which Islington was a roarer. Many of Isinglass stock were exactly the same color as Islington, and, to the best of my recollection, not one of these was any good. 1 do not mean that there never was a good chestnut Isinglass. Aeles was a distinctly good one if severe two-year-old struggles had not marred his career but he was not a washy chestnut of the Islington sort. Xor, for that matter, is Ednam, which also was more than useful; but the washy chestnut. Isinglass on the leg and lightish of bone as a rule, lias been an almost uniform failure. In searching for the source of this type I should-ascribe it in the first place most certainly to Deadlock, and in further casting back I should leave her sire, AVenlock, out of the question, though Minerals sister, Mandragora, did certainly tend to a sorrel chestnut color in some few cases; and I am inclined to assume that the peculiar chestnut shade of the worst type of Isinglass came from Chevalier dIndustrie, the sire of his third dam. Malpractice. I am not clear on the point, however, though I know, of course, that Chevalier dIndustrie was a chestnut. I may be maligning him unduly, and I hope someone else will give us the benefit of an opinion on the subject. It is noticeable that the same chestnut shade is associated with bad horses when it comes out in grandsons of Isinglass in the male line. I think there has been no chestnut John oGaunt of any use, and I have noticed several of them that have inherited both the color and type of the grandsires worst efforts. Let no one think I am writing this in depreciation of Isinglass; but every horse has a wrong drop in him somewhere, and if we can spot it, is in this case, by the color of the stock, a great deal of trouble is saved. That Isinglass was an exceptionally great horse no one can for a moment dispute; but he never inspired enthusiasm and hero worship mainly, I think, because he always gave his backers a few unpleasant moments before coming out to win his race Every time that he ran there was a shout that he was beaten, and though he invariably falsified this shout, a disagreeable impression remained, and ultimately, like the frequent sight of an advertisement became fixed on the retina of memory. I fancy the reputation of Isinglass would be more favored in racing history had it fallen to his lot to be ridden by a lengthy, powerful horseman like Herbert Jones. Tommy Loates was physically quite unsuitcd to get on terms with such a horse, and it was only by a liberal use of the "stick," which, fortunately, Isinglass did not resent, that he could get the big horse to exert himself. It does not follow that Isinglass was really such a slug if he had a different class of horsemen on his back. The manner of his finishing races, however, prejudiced even breeders against him. and I have heard some of them argue that he carried his apathy even into his stud career, though that I do not credit for a moment, for such indications, if they existed, would probably be due to entirely other causes, such as his being too fat from want of sufficient exercise, or something of that sort. Be the cause what it may. Isinglass Was for him a bit of a disappointment as a stallion, though he certainly placed a landmark in the Stud Book when he sired John oGaunt. John himself has been strangely quiescent of late, but he did enough for fame when he gave us Swynford and I shall always believe Kennymore was of equally high class, though, as now transpires, some organic weakness marred the continuity of his racing career. "The Special Commissioner," in Loudon Sportsman.
