view raw text
REGARDING THE LOST LINE OF HEROD Interesting Article by Breeder of The Tctrarch on Efforts Made to Recover It Py lie Breeder of The Tetrarch Do they know At the turn to the Straight StraightWhere Where the favorites fail And every atom of weight weightIs Is telling its tale As some grim old stayer hardpressed hardpressedRuns Runs true to his breed And with head just in front of the rest restFights Fights on in the lead When the jockeys are out with the whips whipsWith With a furlong to go And the backers grow white to the lips As thef notes must to some extent be penned in a personal or egotistical manner I tender in ad ¬ vance in all humbleness my apology If I seem to advocate a further dipping into the blood of Herod I do not wish to do so at the expense of either of the lines of Eclipse with which both England and Ireland have done and are doing so well wellA A memory comes back to me through a long vista of years of seeing for the first time as a child of night or nine broodmares and their foals It was at Palrnerstown Stud County Klldarc the pioneer stud of Ireland founded as I have since understood much on the same lines as Blankney The Earl of Mayo was the presiding genius In the firm faith that the Ireland he so dearly loved could produce live stock of any breed equal to that of any other nnintrjr he had formed and floated this stud as a company at his own home Canary an Orlando horse was there as chief sultan His second dam was Palmyra by Sultan a great grandson of Herods and this blood lives with us still through Xenophoii most notably perhaps in The Sabine and her daughters and granddaughters granddaughtersBut But it was the big men of almost giant stat ¬ ure that fs much as the mares impressed theXhild of a short pigmean race and it was to one of these same big men at a later period of life that I oxvod much for hints on the Herod line and on bloodstock breeding and management generally generallyTin Tin call of Empire took the Earl of Mayo to rule over the millions in India whence alas this great man never returned in life Ireland mourned the loss of one of her noblest sons and the first of them to endeavor to demonstrate that the real destiny of the Emerald Isle was to supply the world witli all manner of the bwt of live stock stockOf Of the oilier big men one was if I mistake not then called Hercules Robinson herculean in stature and herculean too in his love of racing and horse breeding Not many are left with us who remem ¬ ber those days I stand open to correction if such a one reads these notes but I think I am correct in stating that the first appointment of this great man find great sportsman as administrator was St KitsJ Then came Hongkong New Zealand and ljter the governorgeneralship of Australia It was while in that country of lovers of horses that tin Irish blood of Sir Hercules as be had become found full opportunity for Indulging in his favorite pastime of horse racing His colors were the Zet land Sjwts and the worthy governor as Aus ¬ tralians called him won all the best nices of the day He was fully alive to the hardines and en ¬ durance of the Australian horse more particularly those of the Fisherman line of Herod A few days of cadi leave this greatest of colonial governors spcjit at the place at which these notes are iKJimed and it is partly because of hints he was good enough to give me that an attempt has been made to rc niver our lost line of Herod HerodAN AN INTEREST WHICH NEVER WANES WANESI I remember in one of our last talks on blood stock it was after he had been chief commissioner of South Africa after his country had honored him JIK Lord Rossmead possibly when be felt the time ppr achiug when the inexorable debt of nature must IK paid that he said Those who really like bloodstock breeding are much to be congratulated for it is an interest which never wanes but lasts SIK long as life lifeMuch Much has been written to the effect that in the breeding of our race Jiorws we have of late years been relying too much on the lllacklock line of Eclipse Australian sires were imported with a view tf placing at the disposal of our breeders the Muskel cross so successfully emphasized in La Fleche In Carbine the Duke of Portland has given us a line ol stoutness that will in days to come be still more valuable Owners of mares of this line should not lose sight of the fact that Toxophilite sire of Mus ¬ ket was from Legerdemain by Pantaloon PantaloonIn In the year of 17 17i8 i8 was foaled Herod a bay horse by Tartar Cykron a granddaughter of Flying Child ers whose sire was the Darley Arabian Herot wan bred by the Duke of Cumberland and sold after his death to Sir Johii Moore He ran first as a five yearold in October 17C3 at Xewmarket in a match against Lord Ancasters Roman four miles over the Ileacon course 119 pounds each and won easily indeed The following April he won a 300 guineas sweepstakes over the same course and then in a match of 1000 guineas a side over four miles at Ascot be showed immense superiority to Lord Rock iiighains Tom Tinker to which he was conceding six j unds Twice again over the Beacon course first for r 00 and then for 1000 guineas did he beat in matches the Duke of Graftons Antonius He wou his last nice in May 1708 again over the Beacon course and at eleven years of age went to the stud Tlie late Count Lehndorff laid much stress on the absolute necessity of breeding from soundness but in those days it seems to me that not only did our forbears test their horses for soundness but Iwfore a horse was considered worth anything for stud purposes he had to show indomitable courage and endurance These attributes of courage ani resolution the determination to get there are I can never help thinking the most precious traits in man or horse horseAt At the stud Herod met with immediate success equal to if not even greater than his triumphs on tbe race course In the ten years of his stud life he sired the winners of 1007jlo in stakes besides many cups and fortythree hogsheads of claret From the years 1778 to 1797 the winners trace ¬ able to Herod won 4369 per cent and Eclipse 392S 392SThat That was Herods best period and those inclined to compare his familys stud records with those of Eclipse his successful rival as progenitor of our modern bloodstock should never lose sight of the fact that Eclipse was six years longer at the stud than Herod The latters blood comes down to us principally through his two best sons Wood ¬ pecker foaled in 1773 and Highflier 1774 and it seems as if the Woodpecker line is the one most likely to survive surviveWoodpecker Woodpecker brought in a cross of the Darley Arabian through hit fourth dam Lord Lonsdales Darley Arabian mure He was bred by Sir Charles Danvers for whom he won seventeen of the twenty two races in which he competed most of which were run over the Beacon course four miles at XewBJarket At the stud Woodpecker sired 121 winners of races to tbo value of 5350945 besides whips anil cupa and those in days when stakes were sxarcrly half t the value of those that now prevail His best son was llnzzard which brought to his family a cross of the Godolphin Arabian through his dam Mis ¬ fortune by Dux son of Matchem During his six years in training Buzzard won no fewer than thirty five races in which were included the Craven Stakes twice the Jockey Club Plate and most of the other important events of the day In England at the stud Buzzard sired before being sold to the Americans one hundred and eightyninu winners of 627 r besides many cups while in America In bis later years he did more than any other horse to lay the foundation of the American studs and turf turfFrom From the earliest days of racing down to the present it has ever seemed that many of the breed ¬ ers of horses in these Isles bave Iwcn cither ex ¬ ceeding short of cash or shorter still of patriotism Certain it is that the foreigners have never failed to help themselves to our best and in this par ¬ ticular the line of Herod through Buzzard seems to have suffered most and the countries to benefit i were America and France FranceBuzzard Buzzard was the first great link in the line to be lost Later the Americans again scored by buying Glencoe by Sultan sire of Pocahontas PocahontasMated Mated with the Alexander mare a granddaughter of Eclipse Buzzard left us the three famous brothers Castrel Selim and Rubens the first being foaled in 1S01 They were all three highclass horses and of the three Rubens was perhaps the most success ¬ ful at the stud siring no fewer than two hundred arid thirtyone winners of 353105 in stakes be ¬ sides thirtyfour cups but in the male line his blood now seems to be extinct To his brother Castrel we owe what is left to us of our Thorin anby line and France through the blood of these two brothers Castrel and Selim had beaten the world in producing stayers and knocked us out time and again for our long distance races at Ascot AscotIn In 1S24 Castrel sired a magnificent chestnut colt in Pantaloon a horse covered with black spots and so far as the writer of these notes is aware it is in Pantaloon that these same black spots now so common in the chestnut progeny of Bend Or first becime so clearly apparent apparentBlood Blood stock students who incline to the belief that Rend Or was a son of Clemence must admit these black blotches handed down through Windhouml to Thormanby are the strongest argument that in the latters daughter Rouge Rose we see the real as well as the accepted mother of Bend Or But I an ¬ ticipate This big blackblotchcolored chestnut Pantaloon which as a threeyearold was never beaten left us Windhound dam Phryne a daugh ¬ ter of Touchstone whose dam was much inbred to Hirod HirodTHE THE TETRARCH FOALED A CHESTNUT CHESTNUTThe The horse descending in male line in the fifth generation from Thormanby now most calculated so far as my humble judgment goes to carry on tbe line was foaled a chestnut Soon the black blotches were developed and when the foals coat was cast these blotches became light colored on an iron gray coat This was the colt known as Thii Tetrarch TetrarchBut But to hark back with Windhound was mated the celebrated mare Alice Hawthorn which had won fiftyone out of the seventytwo races in which she had taken part what should we think now of a mare that won fiftyone races and in 18T7 as a result of this union tbe great chestnut Thormauby was born Besides nine races as a twoyearold he easily won the Derby and Ascot Cup and has ever been described as a lionhearted horse that conic stay forever foreverIn In Atlantic bred by Lord Falmouth the French captured possibly bis best son after be had won the Two Thousand Guineas and Ascot Derby ami mil third in the Derby and in France Atlantic immediately scored a great stud success siring among other good colts Lu Sancy which was in France what St Simon has been in England their greatest race horse and their greatest sire One of the most experienced judges in England first as a jockey now as a traiuer brackets Le Sancy with Ormonde as the two best horses he lias yet seen It is said of Le Saicy that every single individual by him ever trained was returned a winner and in his all too short stud career he commanded a fee of TiOO guineas Possibly his Lest son was the illfated Holocauste a magnificent gray colt which came over for the Derby in 1899 He and Flying Fox were racing side by side entering the straight Sloan to this day declaring be had got Flying Fox well beaten when Holocauste fell and smashed his fetlock so badly as to necessitate destruction destructionIn In La Samaribmi Le Sancy left in France a really good honest horse also a gray which among other races won the Grand Prix du Deauville Grand St Leger of France Prix Dam and Prix Acacias his total winnings amounting to 205000 francs francsAnd And there we have reached the humble attemp I have made to bring back this lost line of Thormanby in the person of Roi Herode But of a younger man or of younger men I should write for in the development of The Tetrarch Mr Persse should be ever associated with his cousin Mr Der mot McCalmont in the successful exploitation of the breed Both are to be congratulated the for raer because of bis art in the training of this horse the latter because of his patriotic spirit in refusing to consider any offer to buy buyTo To what lines of blood do you attribute the merit of The Tetrarch recently asked one of Englands most noted sportsmen sportsmenTo To his inbreeding to Thormanby I replied repliedExactly Exactly what I said last night replied my questioner questionerALICE ALICE HAWTHORN AND THORMANBY THORMANBYBut But we should not do less than couple Alice Haw ¬ thorn with Thormanby From each of them The Tetrarch takes five crosses and I hope that he may as they did train on and run true and perpetuate this hitherto more or less lost line on much courage courageDo Do they know As they come back to weigh weighIn In a whirlwind of cheers Though the spurs have left marks of the fray frayThough Though the sweat on the ears Gathers cold and they sob with distress distressAs As they roU up the track They know just as well their success successAs As the man on their back As they walk through a dense human lane laneThat That sways to and fro And cheers them again and again againDo Do you think they dont know knowEDITORIAL EDITORIAL NOTE NOTEThe The foregoing contribution was written by The Tetrarchs breeder by request In acknowledging our indebtedness to fiini we must at the same time make it clear that we assume no responsibility for the opinions he bus expressed In our belief the discoveries of Mendel have conclusively disposed for good and all the theory of perpetual descent of unalloyed heritable characters in tailmale or tail female The merits of any given animal cannot ar ¬ bitrarily be attributed either to ita sire or its dam In the case of The Tetrarch it would surely be a mistake to overlook the proved qualities of his dam Vahren Not only does she possess individual excel ¬ lence as a broodmare but she is a member of a family whose daughters have in recent years pro ¬ duced speedy stock Mabille sister to Cremorne the fourth dam of Vahren is the third dam of Chemistry the mother of Thrush one of the speedi ¬ est horses seen on the English turf in recent years and it so happens that Retort the dam of Chem ¬ istry was like Castania the dam of Vahren a granddaughter of Speculum SpeculumThen Then again Rosegarden the greatgrandam of The Tetrarch was the dam of Dornroschen which for many years held the mile record in England and also of Gloire de Dijon which both as a two and threeyearold defeated Omnium II at Baden Baden With these facts before us it is scarcely surprising that Vahren transmits to her produce the heritable characters that make for speed She is the dam of Coupe dOr by John o Gaunt the best filly of her year in Russia and of Nicola by Symington which was a particularly smart filly as a twoyoarold While therefore The Tetrarch is undeniably indebted to Roi Ilerode and that horses forbears for many of his great qualities Vahreu ought to receive some credit for the merits with which lit is endowed Bloodstock Breeders Review London Eng
