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NOTABLE MARES THAT PRODUCED TWINS List Includes Dams of Some of the Most Famous Horses in English History The percentage of plural births in uniparous species of animals is about one in a hundred and such an extremely low average admits of the view held by some biologists though personally I do not share it that the twinning character is a freakish rather than a natural attribute of races which propogate on the uniparous principle However be this as it may there is a certain feature attached to this phenomenon which clearly denotes that the twinning character is anything but a peculiarity de ¬ termined by an organic disorder of the generative system and we therefore must not look upon it as one that arose from and thus may further physical degeneration Every fanner will telL you that a ewe which has given birth to twins or conies from a strain in which this twinning character is hereditary has a special commercial value and this not solely for the reason that two lambs naturally realize more money than one but also because the single produce of a normal birth of this particular case of ewes is in the majority of cases of exceptional quality in re ¬ gard to health and general constitution Few breed ¬ ers are apparently aware that also in the mare the twinning character is enhancing rather than en ¬ croaching upon the breeding value for otherwise one would not hear so often as one does when trying to sell mares of this type that twinning mares as a rule prove rather moderate and unreliable breed ¬ ers If I were to form a stud of my oyn I would select broodmares which come from twinning strains because one may expect from them exceptionally healthy produce and these will make full amends for the loss caused by one or several occurences of plural births birthsTo To substantiate this view by the case referred to in my previous article there is the niare Lady Bawn coming from a twinning strain which pro ¬ duced such an exceptionally strong horse as Bache ¬ lors Double and has now given birth to twin foals This instance is identical with quite a number in the Stud Books of which I will now mention a few fewThere There was once an hereditary tendency of twin ¬ ning in the Giantess and Horatia lines of the No 6 Family but much as I tried I failed to trace its origin It has evinced itself in a most remarkable degree Jlqratia 1758 gave birth in 1775 to dead twins by Herod after having bred among other foals a nameless filly to Spectator and Juno to the same sire The former became the dam of the first Derby winner Diomed and the latter bred the sec ¬ ond Derby winner Young Eclipse Mated in 1789 with Diomed Giantess produced Young Giantess the dam of Sorcerer Eleanor winner of the Derby and Oaks Julia which bred the Derby winner Phan ¬ tom Cressida dam of the Two Thousand Guineas winner Antar and of the Derby winner Priam and a nameless mare by Walton which became the dam of Laugar and the Two Thousand Guineas winner Nicoio lu 1811 Young Giantess bred twins to Giles both of which together with the Oam died in foaling Young Giantess undoubtedly transmitted the twinning character to her daughter by Walton for the chestnut Nicoio had a chestnut twin sister which was born Uead UeadTHE THE FAMOUS CRUCIFIX ON THE LIST LISTI I now attach a list of famous mares which possessed the twinning character Woodbine 1791 dam of the two Oaks winners Music and Minuet Crucifix 1837 herself a winner of the Two Thousand One Thousand Guineas and Oaks and the dam of Surplice winner of the Derby and jjt UgerrCpwl and Cralire which also had twins and is the granddam of the Oaks winner Pietas Ellen Home 1844 which founded the strongest lines of the No 1 Family now in existence Hybla 1846 the dam of Mincemeat winner of the Oaks and of Kettledrum winner of the Derby Leger ¬ demain 1846 herself a winner of tlieCesarewitch and the dam of Toxophllite and Sagitta winner of the One Thousand Guineas Bassishaw 1847 dam of Isoline which also bred twins as did her daughter Isola Belle the dam of Isonomy Queen Bertha I860 herself a winner of the Oaks and the dam of Spinaway winner of the One Thousand Guineas nnd Oaks nnd which also bred twins and of the Wheel of Fortune winner of the One Thousand Guineas and Oaks and which had twins on three occasions Battaglia 1861 the dam of Lord Cough Gladiateurs best son Rigolbochc 1861 the dam of Cremorne and Maibelle mare 1861 by Young Melton Brown Uess the dam of Quiver which bred La Fleche Memoir and Poly mclus dam Maid Marian Palma 1804 the dam of Isabel which bred St Frusquin Lady Covcntr 1865 from which all the famous horses of the No 27 Family descend Poinsettia 1866 the dam of Jem of Gems which bred Le Sancy Enigma 1872 the dam of Tact which bred the One Thou ¬ sand Guineas and Oaks winner Amiable and of Gravity which bred William the Third Thistle 1875 the dam of Common Goldfinch and Throstle which bred Missel Thrash Atalanta 1878 the dam of Ayrshire Sanda 1878 the dam of Sierra which bred Sundridgc and Sainfoin St Margue ¬ rite 1879 herself a winner of the One Thousand Guineas and the dam of Seabreeze Le Var and Roqueburne which bred Rock Sand Sire and dam of Rock Sand therefore were the produce of mares which carried the twinning character Mother Siegel dam of Minoru has bred twins as did sev ¬ eral of the best mares of the Agnes family to wit Wild Agnes Bonnie Agnes and last but not least Ornament OrnamentCASE CASE OF TORMENT OF PARTICULAR INTEREST INTERESTOf Of particular interest is the case of Torment 1850 the dam of the Oaks winner Tormentor and of Laura which bred Petrarch Besides these two Torment had a filly in 1864 by Orlando which was named Bflat and sent to Germany There she proved one of the most prolific broodmares on record for she had twenty fotils and like her dam also gave birth to twins This curious case tends to prove that the twinning disposition is a character denoting exceptional stoutness and vitality I am not by any means anxious to take part in the dis ¬ cussion as to how the phenomenon of plural births can be physiologically and cytologically explained but I certainly endorse the view that the twinning character reveals an abnormally though not by any means unsoundly high development of the sexual and generative organism in the female It may therefore be reasonably expected that mares pos ¬ sessing the twinning character themselves or be ¬ longing to families in which it has manifested it ¬ self before will not only prove prolific breeders but also producers of remarkably strong and healthy offspring The soundness of this view is also borne out by the fact that as a rule the children in such families In which twin births have occurred are exceptionally healthy and well built And once we come to perceive the nature of the physical features attached to the twinning phenomenon ve certainly must not decry the argument any longer that brood ¬ mares which had twins or come from strains in which twinning character is proved to be heredi ¬ tary deserve special attention attentionThere There exists undoubtedly a close physiological re ¬ lation between prolificacy and twinning To my knowledge the ease of Admiration the dam of Veneration II which bred Craganour and Glorvina Pretty Polly Admiral Crichton Admiral Hawke Adera Cockahoop Coriander etc is the only one in the last four volumes of the Stud Book of a mare having had thirteen living foals in succession in as many years And thus the fact that Pretty Polly bred in 1910 twins to Spearmint is not at all strange and one that admits of hope that this wonderful mare will succeed in perpetuating her dams line which through all the preceding seventeen gcnera tions from the original female was not represented by a single winner of note though by a number of sterling good broodmares above all Banter the dam of Touchstone and granddam of Macaroni MacaroniGaze Gaze the dam of Admiration had nine living foals in ten years and so little was thought of her breeding qualifications that she wa subsequently drafted out and sold as a hack The exquisite breed ¬ ing merits of Admiration thus undoubtedly have been determined by the sire element of Saraband and indeed the late Major Loders grand mare took not only in coatcolors but also in several other charac ¬ teristics after the sou of Muncaster as did Pretty Polly which certainly is not so typical of Gallinule as the majority of the sires chestnuts Boulanger in London Sporting Life
