view raw text
HO W TO BREED AMERICAN WINNERS MOTHERS FROM SIRES OF THE RIGHT SORT THE GREAT SECRETS KEY-- ROCK SAND MARES TO FAIR PLAY AND OMAR KHAYYAM AN EXPERT COMBINATION By EXILE J ust at this season of the year, when racing is on the wane, breeders and turfmen are beginning to make summary of what has taken place during the summer season and cast about for suitable mates for their mares for the coming year. The outstanding features-of -this year are the performances of Sir Barton and Man o War, the success of Fair Play as the sire of winners and the success of the daughters of Rock Sand in the production of them. Matings will now occupy the attention of our breeders to a greater extent than has sometimes been the case. Looks, conformation, haphazard matings evei-y once in a while turn out advantageously, but more frequently result in failure. Weil do I know it is quite impossible with any certainty to breed a race horse, but I also know that by following certain set rules a far better average result can be had. Turf history teaches us this and history lias a habit of repeating itself. Here is the pedigree of the leading brood mare sire of the year, Roc,k Sand: r si- bt- AlDanb Aiiv,n Stockwell 3 J The Baron 24 E -J 1 Pocahontas 3 H , Springfield .12 J chestnut, 18u7 Bribery J The Libel 14 H bay, 1873 . Split Vote 2E erg. Viridiq Marsyas 1o 12 J Orlando 13 E tVmdls i3 ;- Maligran 12 E f "ay. 1S04 Maid of Palmyra.. J Pyrrhus 1 3 H -5 a 1 J Palmyra 12 H I Clifden 2 Newxnlnstcr 8 E -3 g I r Wenlock wonlocK 4 "M 1 The Slave 2 M - da . Sanda "I rbay- 1SC9. I Mineral ..J Rataplan ..3 E 1 1878 stolen a Ssi I3 ... ,Sanaal ........... Randal j 5 Pocahontas 3 II 2jSJ brown, 1BG1 j Lady Evelyn J Don John 2 E , vi4 -::":::::::irg S r Galopin 3J 1 Mrs xtidgway 19 E J bay 1872 FlylnS Duchess .. J j- gt simon ..11 Flying Dutchman 3 H 3 2 black, 18S1 i Kin Tom 3 iiarkaway "!"!!!!"" 2 E 2 a, 3 t St. Angela J Pocahontas 3 H -J bay, 1SG5 Adeline i Ion 4 II . 1 I Little Fairy 11 E 2 o , Ncwminster S i Touchstone 14 E tT,. tf r f Hermit ,.. 5 J Beeswing 8M St. Margue- chestnut, 1801 j Seclusion ... i Tadmor 12 H M I. rite 4 Miss Sellon 5 H chestnut, 1S79 ,. Stockwell 3 J The Baron 24 E I Devotion J Pocahontas 3 H chestnut, 1809 Alccstis J Touchstone 14 E Sacrifice 4 E Of all things in connection with the breeding of bloodstock, so far as my experience goes, is the selection of good brood mare sires sires whoso daughters will be productive of many and good winners. It is an accepted fact, I think, that speed is an essential requisite in the brood mare. She must also have size and conformation. The best of the brood mares, from what I can see and learn, are mares standing from 15 to 15.2 hands, straight of neck, with feminine heads, close to the ground, high tailed, roomy mares, those alert, bright and keen, busylike, mare-looking mares, and it is from such that the great majority of the best of the winners are bred. Everything racing, conformation, breeding about Rock Sand suggested his success as a brood mare sire. Of course, there have been a lot better race horses than Rock Sand. I did not see the race myself for the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park, in which Rock Sand was beaten some twenty lengths by Ard Patrick and Sceptre, but I was so fortunate as to be on hand when Prince Palatine and Stedfast had their little go for the same race in 1912, leaving the London Cup winner Lycaon some twenty lengths astern, bystanders at the finish remarking on the similarity of the Ard Patrick-Sceptre race. Sceptre again in the Jockey Club Stakes, one and three-quarter miles, after apparently being hopelessly out of it, came striding along to. fairly smother Rock Sand at the end. This does not in any way detract from Rock Sands merit as a race horse, but only goes to show the exceptional merit as racers of both Ard Patrick and Sceptre. Yes, RoVk Sand was possessed of fine speed and his get take after him in this particular, as well as in conformation. I saw the horse on Newmarket heath and again welcomed him on his arrival in Lexington a medium-size brown, well proportioned and balanced, not at all a commanding horse, but just about my beau ideal of what a brood mare sire should be. Not in the least like his sire. Sainfoin, but altogether a St. Simon. Indeed, St. Simon and Hanover are the most marvellously impressive horses of my acquaintance. One could just see St. Simon in Rock Sand, and this in spite of the fact that Roquebrunes dam, the One Thousand Guineas winner, St. Marguerite, was by that great color controller, the chestnut Hermit. To begin with, Sainfoin never, outside of Rock Sand, proved a success as the sire of winners of the best class. His daughters, however, as the dams of the gigantic and unbeaten, as a three-year-old, St. Leger winner, Hurry On; Bromus, dam of Phalaris; Rot, the Cesarewitch winner, Yentois dam, are coming on right well as brood mares, and this was to be anticipated, for Springfield, Sainfoins sire, got the dams of Colin, Sundridge, the great Australian sire Tositano, Galtee More, Ard Patrick and other daughters of Springfield, such as Briar-root, Crisis, Queen of the Spring, Spring Ray, Sunrise, Virdigris, Wild Ivy, etc., are all noted for their productive excellence. Sanda, Sainfoins dam, is a daughter of the St. Leger winner, Wenlock, sire of the dams of Isinglass, Black Sand, Best Man, etc., and Sainfoin comes of a branch of the Burton Barb family, that of Arachne, by Filho da Puta, more noted for the excellence of its female members than for the production of race horses and sires. Roquebruno, dam of Rock Sand, though none too sound, was noted for her speed, winning the New Stakes at Ascot in her two-year-old days, and is a daughter of the greatest and best horse which has lived since the time of Stockwell, St. Simon, which I think headed the English winning brood mare sire list for nine seasons. I myself had a good view of the horse at Hunciecroft in 1896. He was all lire and brimstone, a wonderful walker. No one knew the limit of his speed, and a sire which led off by getting fillies which none could beat, it stood to reason that St. Simon would be a great brood mare sire. Flying Duchess, dam of Galopin, was a daughter of that good Herod horse, the Derby winner Flying Dutchman, and St. Simons dam, St. Angela, by that extra good brood mare sire, King Tom, whose dam, Pocahontas, was by Glencoe. All of you know what the introduction of the name of Glencoe means to a pedigree. Adeline, granddam of St. Simon, was a daughter of Ion, the Herod horse which did so much for France, and St. Simon, in addition to Rock Sand, is the sire of the dams of Cannobie, John oGaunt, Kroonstad, Forfarshire, Signorinetta,. William Rufus, Henry I., Fels, Wool Winder, Bridge of Earn, Bridge of Canny I know I have omitted the names of some, but the above are sufficient to show what a wonderful brood mare sire was St. Simon. The chestnut One Thousand Guineas winner St. Marguerite, herself a brood mare of unusual excellence, is the dam of the St. Leger winner. Sea Breeze, and of that good Irish sire, Tredennis, and is a daughter of that rarely good brood mare sire, Hermit, which got the dams of Gallinule, Amphion, Marco, Soliman, Star Shoot, Ravensbury, La Sagesse, Sidus, St. HilaiM, St. Damien, Arcadia Cyllenes dam and Watercress, Peter Pan, Von Tromp, Don de Oro and Beldame. Stockwell, sire of Devotion, was a most successful brood nuire sire, and his dam, Pocahontas, by imported Glencoe. Springfield, Wenlock, Flying Dutchman, St. Simon, Hermit and Stockwell are all there in his pedigree. Failure for Rock Sand as a brood mare sire was impossible, and in addition to all this Rock Sand is himself a. member of -the great winner producing line no really great sires, Rock Sand himself the best the Virginia, by Rofcton branch of the Lay ton Barb family. The happy nick, too, it would seem, has been found for daughters of Rock Sand. Just breed them to Fair Play and watch the winners come. I have ere this been accused of persistency and I won. Fair Play is of Matchem descent in the male line, Rock Sand and Eclipse. Return the best blood in the dam to the best blood in the dam of the sire, Roquebrune, to the Galliard of Dame Masham, grandam of Fair Play. This the plan of mating, the best thing is to follow it up. May I here be permitted to suggest the mating of a few of Rack Sands daughters to that really good race horse of Matchem descent, Omar Khayyam? Omar is a -member of the same family, that of Maid of Masham, as is Fair Play also of Matchem descent and his. dam, Lisnia, is a daughter of the i Galopin horse, Persimmon, can you beat this? I trow not.
