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MEDDLER GREAT BROOD MARE SIRE "JUST A TRIFLE EFFEMINATE," BUT HIS DAUGHTERS HAVE DONE WONDERS HIS AND THEIR EXCELLENCE PROBABLY THROUGH BUSYBODY, RATHER THAN HIS SIRE, ST. GATIEN By EXILE Meddler, which now stands third on the winning brood mare sire list, leads both in number of producing daughters and in number of races won, thirty-three of his daughters having bred the winners of 115 races. A lovely horeje was Meddler. How often have I hear the remark, "Just a trifle effeminate," applied to Meddler, and bred he is to be just that trifle effeminate. The unbeaten son of St. Gatien had a beautifully clear, hazel eye, and everything head, neck, shoulder, back, spring of rib, poise and mien denoted the thoroughbred. The hypercritical would tell you he was deficient in second thigh and looked too much like a mare to be of any real use as a sire, but his feminine characteristics were contributory factors in making him the really good brood mare sire that he is. Did I not tell you not so many days ago that the easiest thing of all to guess in bloodstock breeding are brood mare sires? Good brood mare sires must look the part, be bred to fill the part, and must, as must their get, be possessed of abundant speed and their daughters inherit that certain look of femininity. Just how good a race horse was Meddler is "not proven." True, he retained an unbeaten certificate, but raced only in his two-year-old days, when in the Dewhurst Plate he beat Raeburn, victor over Isinglass in the Lancashire Plate the following season. This the only time Meddler was sent out to do battle against anything like a good horse. St. Gatien, Meddlers sire, was an out-and-outer as a race horse, far and away better than Harvester, which made a dead heat of it with him for the Derby of 1884, as his subsequent victories in the Ascot Gold Cup, Alexandra Plate, Jockey Club Cup and Cesarewitch abundantly prove. St. Gatien was what may be termed a queer-bred horse. His sire. The Rover, never, so far as I know, won a race, and I have heard it said was done away with by foul play in Ireland on Meddlers appearance. St. Gatlens dam, St. Editha, was a daughter of the bad race horse Kingley Vale, though I believe lie was a Kings Premium winner. But Kingley Vale was of Herod descent, tracing back by way of Nutbourne, The Nob to Glaucus, son of Gladiators sire, Partisan. St. Gaticns dam also bred Sylva Belle, granddam of the best "little" sire of all of them. Broomstick. So much for St. Gatien. It is with the breeding of Meddlers dam. Busybody, I propose more particularly to deal. Busybody, herself an Oaks winner, came of a line through Spinaway and Queen Bertha of Oaks winners. Verily this is a female family, renowned for the excellence of its members both as race and brood mares. No first-class sires, however, trace to Sister to Cobweb, ancestress of Meddler, by Phantom. Believe it or not, as it may please you, Herod blood does and always did play a leading part in the production of good brood mares and good brood mare sires. Petrarch, sire of Busybody, a good average race horse and also a highly nuccessful sire of brood mares, was full of the best Herod strains, and Macaroni was, if I may so phrase it, the prince of brood mare sires. The best part of Kingston nerod was his daughters, which include the dams of Misselthrush, Quo Vadis, the unbeaten Quintessence, etc. Macaroni got the dams of the horses of the century Ormonde, Martagon, St Angelo, Muncaster, Kendal, Pilgrimage, Laveno, Orvieto, Bona Vista, Sir Visto, Galliard, etc. Kingston sired a number of good brood mares among them Silverhair, Silvios dam and the dam of the American Kingfisher and Glenelg. Flax was got by the Derby winner, Surplice, whose name as a sire is mainly perpetuated by the achievements of his daughters as brood mares, and there were only but a few of them. Flax is followed by Odessa a daughter of Glencoes sire. Sultan. More good brood mare blood here, and so to sister to Cobweb, by the Herod, Phantom, Petrarch, Macaroni, Kingston, Surplice, Sultan aud Phantom, all in a row Is then the brood mare sire success of Meddler to be wondered at? As for great sires tracing to Sister to Cobweb there are none. I cannot bring myself to regard and all of this the cause of prediction Queen Berthas son, Queens Messenger, as approaching great, my years ago, when Meddler was in residence at the Kingston Stdd, of the coming success of his daughters as brood mares. I think this prediction reasonably well fulfilled. Autumn sales time approaches and my object in writing these notes on brood mare sires is that those who are on the lookout to replenish existing studs or form new ones may be better able to form an estimate of the probable winner producing capabilities of the brood mares which will come under the hammer Failure I know is all too frequent in bloodstock breeding, but if more attention were given to blood lines and family characteristics failure would be less frequent. For instance, the practically home, crown family of Maggie B. B. is a family wonderfully prolific of the best sort of winners, but Sir Dixon is the solitary success as a sire. Another case in point is that of Maria West. Many have been tried as sires and found wanting, and Ben Brusli is the only real success. There is no accounting for the failure of the male members of the Maggie B. B. line as sires, except it be the free introduction of Herod blood Bobadll and Sir Peter. by way of Glencoe, Mameluke, Tlie Baron 24 E Stockwell 3J .. btockweu J r Blair Athol ....10 1 Pocahontas 3 H Rotherhill chestnut, 1801 j Blink Bonny j Melbourne i or The J 1 1 Queen Mary 10 H S Kver .... C 1 . Newminster .... 8 J touchstone 14 E w chestnut, 1874 Crinon J Beeswing 8 M a g chestnut, 1808 J J Brocket 1 M Mirzerv arSer7 Daw mw 1 r 2, 2 J j Protection 6 E . J T1,e Nabob .....12 H s -1 i Knthnnmo Nutbourne 1 l 0 , Kingley Vale .. 8 j -j Prlncess x K j - - chestnut, 1804 Binnerdale 1JJBneruj,e ... J Newminster 8 B w St. Editha.lOj i Florence Nightingale.. 8 E Jo bay 1873 Lady Alice j Chanticleer 23 Jj ....-..g E S brown, 1855 , Clarion 0 H H . g 1 Annette Ki E fi ; , . . Q j Touchstone 14 E g a . Lord Clifden.... 2 j Newminster .... 8 !eeswiuK 8 M r retrarch io f bay slaTe e0;?..::::::::::: I ........... M E tone bay. 1873 10 Orlando 13 SS Laura j . l bay, 1800 i Torment i Alarm 19 H J-ornient "j "Daughter of Glencoe. 1 H 1 I f Macaroni 14 J eetmeat 2L ggjgr ......... .. H 18G0 i Pantaloon 17 H bay, j Jocose lciPCt.p I Spinaway ...1 1 Banter 14 E "1 i Venison 11 H bay, 1872 f Kincston 12 lngston Queen Bertha .... j 1 Queen Anne 12 E bay, 18C0 I n. j Sultan 8 II Odessa g.ster to Cobweb 1 H Imported.
