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PRODUCER OF MANY DERBY WINNERS Record of Maria West Family in the Female line Surpasses All Others in This Respect RespectThe The success of Exterminator in the Kentucky Derby has called forth numerous articles from different turf writers eulogizing the potency of the Maria West family of race horses all of which is well deserved for no other family in the female line has produced so many Derby winners as this one writes Charles Brossman the famous horse trainer now retired It is nn illustration of the theory that I have so often advocated to breed highbred English sires unto our vigorous stout game American mares or reverse the theory and breed fashionablybred English mares to the stallions in whose veins flows the blood that has made the American race horse renowned renownedJohrcn Johrcn winner of this years Suburban Handi ¬ cap has for his second dam Hurley Burley by tin Kentucky Derby winner Riley and also belonging to the Maria West family on the mater ¬ nal side therefore he also should have a chance to win a Derby this article was written before Tohren won the Latonia Derby for as the Apostle Paul wrote n long while ago Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump lumpThere There seems to be a disposition on the part of some horse enthusiasts to only consider those pedigrees that merge into obscurity along about the time of and during the reconstruction period after the Revolutionary War as truly American and insist that the family originated in America Nothing could be further from the fact The country was young and fighting for its existence mil pedigrees were lost or handed down by word of mouth only while others were carefully filed away and traced to the best blood in England There was no stud book in those times and each man looked out for his own stock stockIn In the early history of racing in this country before the Revolutionary AVar wealthy gentle ¬ men imported into the colonies the best thorough ¬ bred horses to be found in England No objection was then raised because North America was then a British possession and many of the colonists were second sons or near relations to the most influential men of England who desired that their younger brothers cousins and friends in America succeed and have the best bestConsequently Consequently there was evolved a race of thor ¬ oughbreds in this country that were thought by their owners to be superior to any in the world Having no official stud book records and pedi ¬ grees were loosely kept or lost and as the race track was the final testing ground upon which to determine which was the best and as no horse but a thoroughbred could possibly win at fourmile heats over the best horses in America the proper preservation of the pedigrees was considered an individual matter matterHISTORY HISTORY OF EARLY AMERICAN FAMILIES FAMILIESHence Hence legend tradition and uncertainty in an early day crent into many of our best American families and the representatives of such families could not now be recorded in the English Stud Book or have a family number according to the Bruce Lowe system On the other hand we have many other old families that are just as distinctly American where the records have been carefully preserved that trace back to imported mares that are recorded in the English Stud Boot some of them winners of the classic events and are en ¬ titled to numbers in the different top root families No student of pedigree or performance of race horses would suppose for nn instant that Maria West the dam of Wagner the best four mile heat horse in America in his day was a shortbred mare the family has uniformly produced rugged fast and game race horses and seems to acquire greater po ¬ tency with each succeeding generation If there was a weak place in the pedigree it would have been discovered long ago and the family forgot ¬ ten It is one of the families that always wins and produces producesIt It must be understood that to prove a horse to be of coldblooded descent is one thing certain and conclusive while not to prove a horse of pure blnod establishes nothing beyond a doubt Therefore these turf writers that imagine that every good horse must come out of the English Stud Book and that the famous old Virginia thoroughbreds started on nothing or had pedigrees that traced to cart horses had better read up a little on the history of the colonies coloniesThe The thoroughbreds all came from the same place from the Oriental horse Most of them came to this country through England and established great racing families here We have however a limited number of families founded by mares shipped direct from tlie Orient the Barb mare presented to President Jeffcrscn by the Bey 6f Tunis being one of the most conspicuous examples examplesTherefore Therefore it will be seen that any family that lias been developed raced and improved in this country from generation to generation must be considered an American family and it dont make any difference where it came from or when or how it came What we want now is the best good strong fast game rugged race horses that can carry stake weights and win over a long distance of ground We can then breed to the winners and thus improve the horse stock of the whole country and give the farmers a chance to breed desirable horses for tlie cavalry in Uncle Sams great army
