view raw text
STAMINA IN RA CE HORSES Dr. SHORTHOUSES LIST OF "STAYING" FAMILIES By W. S. VOSBURGH "Aye, Sliorlhouse, laugh laugh loud and long. For pedigree youre a stickler; You may be right. I may be wrong, Wiseacres both! Lets liquor. Our common descent we may each recall To a lady of old caught tripping. The fair one Jn fig leaves, who d d us all For a bite at a golden pippin." Gordon. We hear and see so much written on the subject of stamina and the need of it- and the want of it in modern race horses that it has occurred to me that having come across an article written by a noted student of pedigrees it might interest your readers. The article Was written by the late Dr. J. H. Shorthouse. Probably there are few in this country who are familiar witli the identity of Dr. Shorthouse. Consequently, before quqting his article, it might be as well to state who Dr. Sliorthousr was. Dr. Shorthouse, for many years editor of the London Sporting Times, was the great pedigree authority of "the sixties," that decade so famous in English racing history; not only for its tremendous betting transactions, but for the appear-, ance of so manv famous race horses. He was. undoubtedly, a man of great ability; but such is tiie perversity of- human nature that he is now chiefly remembered for his errors. The chief one of these was. in the light of recent events, his intense hostility to the blood of Blacklock "the iccursed Hlacklock," he is accused of having styled it. When Vanban became favorite for the Derby of 1S07, the Doctor proclaimed that "no colt of the accursed Blaekloclf blood could win a Derby," and "backed his opinion" by laying odds: of 100 to 1 when .Xhe..odds wercs-,0 JtpA, - Yauban was a sbit of JIus-trovrfr. fKAiyrae1m by BlacUlock; while Vaubans dam. Palm, wns a granddaughter of. Voltaire, son of Blacklock. Tims, Vaubans double cross of, Blacklock was too much for the Doctors equanimity. Staying was thought to be Vaubaus forte, but he only ran third to Hermit and Marksman for the Derby, and the Doctor shouted "I told, you so." much to the disgust of John Day and Fordham, the trainer and jockey of the colt. In fact, the Black-: lock blood had rather a poor time of it until lS74-7.", wlien Galopin took the field and became the horse of the decade. Before the Derby the Doctor declared if Galopin won he would eat him, and their is a story that after the colt had won Prince Bathyany jokingly asked him "How will you have him cooked?" But that did not crush the Doctor. He admitted Galopins great merit, but claimed that he was not i son of Vedette that Delight was his sire. The late Mr. John Corlett shared In this opinion, and so ilid several others. In fact, after Galopin had made ;o great a sensation there were many doubts cast upon his paternity. Some had it he was by Promised Land, but that was shown to lie impossible. Then Lacydes was suggested. A great deal was written on the subject, but Dr. Shorthouse would hnve been content that Galopin should be anything but a descendant of "the accursed Blacklock." THE DOCTOR LANDS IN PRISON. Dr. Shorthouse selected Macaroni as a yearling rind backed him for the Derby at GO to 1. He also picked Lord Lyon, Blue Gown, Blair Athol and Rustic as yearlings. In 1804 lie wrote "the blood of Blacklock and his descendants Voltaire, Brutandorf, Velocipede, Horusea, etc., is so questionable in value that the sooner it is extinct the tetter. I cannot recall any horse of present or past days possessing three or more crosses of it and worth training," and lie further added that the blood "poloned the breed of horses." In 1809 the Doctor published a caustic article on Sir Joseph Hawley for scratching his hqrse When he was forestalled in the betting. Blue .Gown was described as "Blackleg," and Sidirollte as "Swindlerite." while Sir Joseph figured as "Sir Joseph Seratchhawley." The law of libel, is severe In England. Sir Joseph brought action and the Doctor landed in prison. It wns, I think, in 1879 that in a letter made iniblic Dr. Shorthouse took occasion to write as follows: "A friend asked mo to furnish a list of the names of those mares which were to be found in the ancestry in the female line or horses possessed of unusual stamina. All horses which Can stay have one or otner or "ie following names as the tap root of .their ancestry. I do not go so far as to say that all which can lay claim to such a tap root can or do stay localise there may have tieen various other reasons, such as illness, ill-feeding or bad training, why they should not do so. But it is a singular circumstance that out of some thousands of tap root within, say, six or seven generations, only those mentioned below occur with anything like frequency. On the other hand, such mares as Sacrifice, by Voltaire, or Little Finch, by Horusea, often occur in the pedigrees of flashy animals, which can almost fly for a short distance, but which Invariably disappoint and deceive their owners and backers when asked to do something out of the common. The following names are hot necessarily to be looked upon in the order of merit, except in the first three or four instances. I may mention that Isonomy traces back through Isoline to one of my favorite Shuttle mares": THE SHUTTLE HARES. .v Oamerines dam, by Rubens; Prunella, yRebecea, by Lottery; Gibside Fair. Olympia, by Sir Oliver; Manuella, Monimia, Marpossa. Martha Lynn, Mor-giana. Pucelle, Anticipation, Treasure, by Qamillus; Cast Steel. There are a few others which may be found at the lower part of the pedigree table of stayers, hilt their names do not occur with sufficient frequency to entitle them to a niche in the above pantheon. Taking up Dr. Shorthouses staying families, ; he mentions the Shuttle mares as great favorites. There are some twenty of them in the Stud Book as having produced foals. Tracing to these mares in the female line are Gladiateur twice. Tracery, Isonomy, Baaccomir, St. Christopher, Tene- , breuse, Pent-Etre. Plaisantirie, Lbwlander, Coronation, Kingley Vale, Von Galen, Placida, Crucifix, : Physician, Rene dOr, Consul, Le Marechal. Schie- j dam, Henry, General, Surplice. Marsyas, Kingston. Hermit bv Bay Middleton, 1851, Asteroid, Robert , the Devil, Mornington, Don Juan, Chesterfield, etc. j CAMERINES DAM, a mare foaled h, 1819, by i Itubens Tippity-witchit. has been n fairly pro- 1 ductlve one. Among the horses tracing directly through the maternal line to her are Recovery, i Hare, May Day. rhosphorus Derby 1837. Hagot- I sky French Derby. 1ero Gomez. Saunterer, Dan- din. Ladv Coventry, Lady Golightly, Loiterer, Lid- I diugtou, Rupee, Energy, Enthusiast, etc. i ; , : j , j i 1 i I I i PRUNELLA 178S, by Highflyer. This is the. most extensive family in the Stud Book. Among others are Partisan, Tiresias, Whalebone, Whisker, Web, Cobweb, Middleton, Bay Middleton. Riddlesworth.. Glcncoe, Cossack. Lord Lyon, Achievement, Bend Or, Sunshine, Elenier, Pageant. .Tanette, Blue Gown, Pilgrimage, Swynford, Trumixjter, Meddler. Queen Bertha, Spinaway, Busybody, Silvio, Minting, Wheel of Fortune, The Rake, Blue Mantle, Neil Gow. Cicero, Ladas, Gay Crusader, etc. GIBSIDE FAIRY 1811, by Hermis. had among her descendants West Australian, Muiidig, Trustee Cotherstone, Caterer, Parmesan, iHophantus. Exact. Lord Ronald. Wisdom, Lady Patroness, Donovan und Semolina. OLYMPIA 1813. by Sir Oliver, lias a linn distinguished by Orlando. Vulture, Mendicant, Beadsman, Elis. Epirus, Shotover. George Frederick, Ely. Albert Victor, Little Duck, etc. MANUELLA 1S09. by Dick Andrews, had in her list Memnon. Fisherman, Strathconan, Ostregor, Kingcraft, King Alfred, Royal Hampton and the American-bred His Highness. MONIMIA 1821, by Muley, has Chatham, Springfield. The Duke, The Earl, The Nabob, Ceylon, Tadmor. Hester, Best Man and the American horses Kingfisher and Funis. MARPESSA 1830, by Muley. had Pocahontas, Stockwell, Rataplay, King Tom, Rayon dOr, Chamant, Camelia, Idas, Knight of the Garter, etc. MARTHA LYNN 1837. by Mulatto, has Voltigenr, Lord Clifden, Imperieuse, Camballo, Bal Gal, Carbine, Grimston, Rustic, Complegne, Friars Balsam, Deliane, Hilarious, Adventuriere, Johren, etc. PUCELLE 1S21J, by Muley, has .Virginia and the r -sa!SrfnlinnarolraiE6far;-BrVVzr St.Jtfar guerite, Thebais, Tlialestris, RoekSand; The Ugly Buck, etc. ANTICIPATION 1802, by Beningborough, had Maniac, Inheritor, Hand Maiden, Macgregor, Marksman. Common, Throstle, The Miner, Wen-lock. Kisber, Mandrake. Schwindler, Apology, Wildschutz, Holy Friar, Bruleur, etc. TREASURE, by Camillus, has Martha Lynn and her descendants Arachne, Fanny Davis, Indnstry, Lady Evelyn, La Toncques, Thunder, Sainfoin, Isolani, Illona, etc. CAST STEEL 182S, by Whisker. To her trace Gamester, Vespasian, Sabinus, Surefoot, Upas, Gallinule, Vlndex, Gadabout, Garlands, Vertu-mua. Gnlamthtis, Garnish, Gossamer, Exile American, etc. It will be observed that, witli the exception of Prunella, all the mares named above dated from forty to sixty years from the date 1S79 at which Dr. Shorthouse wrote the list. Therefore, it can at least be said that they are more entitled to consideration than the mares of the ridiculous "Figure System," which goes back two hundred years for a fountain head. In other words, the horses racing In Dr. Shorthouses day were much nearer the fountain heads he named, in point of propinquity, than were the same horses in point of propinquity to the fountain heads in the "Figure System." It seems more reasonable to expect a third or fourtii dam to exert a greater influence upon a descendant ! than an eighteenth or twentieth dam. We would consider Martha Lynn to have a greater influence in the case of Lord Clifden, for instance, than the Burton Barb mare. WHY WAS PRUNELLA SELECTED? Why Dr. Sliorthcuse selected Prunella and associated her with the other mares he names as fountain heads it is difficult to understand. Prunella i was foaled forty or fifty years before most of the others, and naturally having many more descendants , in consequence thereof renders any comparison be- tween she and the other mares ont of question. Even : had he given her daughter Penelope the preference it would not have mended matters, as Penelope was : foaled in 1798. It is strange, too, that he should have preferred Manuella to her dam. Mnndnne. True, Manuella produced Mennon, Belshazzar. Wedding Day. West Country Lass. Panethea and Nitocris. But Mundane j produced Altisidora, Lottery, Brutandorf and the dam of Liverpool. The selection of Olvmpias as : a staying family, particularly as Vulture was its chief ornament, is hard to understand, and more especially so in the light of receiit racing, both here anil abroad. Dr. Shorthouse condemns the family of Sacrifice, by Voltaire, as "flashy." Vet she was a grand- daughter of Pucelle. one of his selected mares. ! and was also a half-sister to Virago probably the best race marc which appeared in England during the nineteenth century. But, perhaps, his dislike of Sacrifice was due to her Blacklock blood. At all J events, the descendants of Sacrifice have rallied : since the Doctors day, for Thebais, St. Marguerite, : Rock Sand and Sea Breeze were pretty good per- , formers, and could stay far enough for general pnr- poses. , If we are to assume that stamina, or any pe- j culiarity, descends from and is due entirely to the maternal line. Dr. Shorthouse was justified in his preference for the Shuttle mares. Asteroid lS.S 1 was one of the best stayers of all Stockwells sons. j. He won the Ascot Gold Cup at four years old. and at five the Chester Cup with 130 pounds, and was " twice third for the Cesarewitch, carying 129 pounds J; as a four-year-old. Kingston, the most beautiful , horse of his day his picture is before us as we write, was a stayer of stayers. Isonomy was probably the best race horse of his era. as were Robert the Devil. Surplice and Plaisantirie. Gladiateur was considered a phenomenon, while as to Tracery, t his performances are too recent to need recalling. ii But it may Well be doubted if stamina is to be c traced exclusively to ancestors in the maternal line : many generations removed unless we are engaged in n selling horses, when it is a different matter. It is s pretty on paper, and a delightful study to the i novice, but to anyone who has spent a lifetime in n the study of breeding and racing it is of doubtful t value. We would prefer a consideration of sire, t as well as dam, and we would consider, also, the e Intermediate crosses, as well as the conformation of t the horse, and his muscle fiber and his action n in galloping. t Accordingly, it seems to me that with all respect u for Dr. Shorthouse as a diligent student of breed- n ing, his selections of blood lines for stamina are a a to be taken with some discrimination. I have b found that the Stud Book can be used to both prove a at or disprove any theory, or at least appear to do so, t and is misleading to anyone who takes for o granted the many theories advanced by writers, d Therefore, we present the Doctors ideas only with the hope that they have furnished the reader with -a few moments entertainmnt.
