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"STAYING" LIMIT OF HORSES Endurance Mere Question of Fric- tion Even in Great Individuals. Allisons Prejudice Against American Blood Ugly Folly of j Equine Nomenclature. i i Commenting on Brigands surprising run of the , English "Bend to Eend" Cambridgeshire, Special , Commissioner Allison in the Sportsman drifts into history and wisdom about stayers and some of the printed routine folly about "staying" in races. He writes: Consideration makes the performance of Brigand ail the more astonishing, for, according to my reckoning, ten furlongs is the absolute limit to which a. horse of the very highest class can go at full speed without running short of oxygen. This was done by Slieve Gallicn in the Derby, for -which lie was a. stone certainty could he have been controlled; but with his neck turned up wrong way. as it was. ho was practically uncontrollable, and took charge all the way, mnnng out wide at Tat-tenhaiu Corner, and after being in the lead at ten furlongs then swerving off, as needs must. Slieve Gnlliqn was a very great horse indeed, and it was much to be regretted that Ids impetuosity and the formation of his neck stood so badly against him; hut .there, is no real doubt about the subject, though Orhy, who actually wffirfftrDeTli.i rmuBt-nlstfhtyiP ! been a great horse. What I want to make plaiu is that most -people thought Slieve Uallion did not stay the Derby course when he was run out at ten furlongs. Such ideas are habitually mistaken. No horse stays more .than ten furlongs in a mad, top-speed gallop; very few stay so far. And there wo reacli the credential of Brigand as a real stayer over nine furlongs. Kven among men who run one hundred yards there is a distinction as to stamina, and that jwrliaps will surprise some of my readers, but it is true. Just as some two-year-olds can inly get four furlongs, so can some men only get eighty yards at tlier ltest speed." In I lie same article Mr. Allison stumbles in his deeply seated prejudice against American thoroughbred blood ami ambles sensibly with his pen as to thoroughbred names or misnames until he conies to the folly of psychological influence of such names. There can be no doubt from the way in which Prince Galahad won over the seven-eighths on Thursday that he is a good colt indeed, and the only thing that can be said against him is that lie traces to a native American source, viz., Meades Ccler mare dam of Quicksilver mare. This is not only native American, but one of the least successful of these sources, as was shown by a statistical table which W. II. Bowe contributed to The British Thoroughbred. WHERE THE AMERICAN BLOOD FLOWS. It is always to be remembered that the Paraffin family lias made considerable successes with American blood, and Irince Palatine is a Paraffin liorse. Then, again. Decagone, the dam of Prince Jala-had, was a Brocklesby winner, and her dam, Dssca, was useful on the turf and a fair stayer. The grauddam. High Feather, did not win, but she produced a good liorse in China Cock, by Santoi, which did not get Cup courses, but needed a lot of beating over a mile and three-eighths or a mile and :t half. Ho might not in himself lie a sufficient credential to lead us to anticipate a Derby winner from the same family, but High Feather is -supplemented by Desmond and Martagou before we get to "the combination with Prince Palatine which lias produced Prince Galahad. This is the more notable because Desmond and Martagou were loth Agnes horses, and, what is more, they were closely allied through Carnival in the case of Desmond and Macaroni in Martagou, Macaroni and Carnival being practically own brothers. Beyond that, too, we must bear in mind that the greatest Persimmons successes were obtained from mares combining Bend Or, Macaroni and Agnes. Zinfandel and Sceptre were bred in this way, and now we get Decagone combining Bend Or sire of Martagou with Macaroni and Carnival as well as double lines of Agnes. It is clear that, so far as these first removes of her pedigree go, she is ideally bred to suit a Persimmon liorse. while Irince Palatines Paraffin tup-root "is just what is wanted in the case of native American blood. I-adas Paraffin got his best daughter. Costly Iidy. from a Foxhall mare. I have been at some pains to go into this pedigree of Prince Galahad, because at first glance, after Ascot. I was inclined to "fault" liini on account of the American blood, and. of course, the fault, such as it is. remains; nor is there anything more certain than that a faulty tap-root, is difficult to breed out: but for reasons given above 1 am distinctly in favor of Prince Galahad, though, if lie does not win the Derby, he will be the only winner of that race, except the .wretched Durbar II., which-could not claim a Bruce Lowe figure. "HERE I GO WITH MY EYE OUTS" DAYS. This point is up -against him. no doubt, and pretty badlv, too; but, as I explained some little ilmeago tile female ancestry of Tetratema is such that his ability to stay over long courses must be quest ioiiable indeed, apart from the fact that lie is by The Tetraich, whose ability to get stayers is yet not proven. In other words, I fully expect Prince Galahad to prove Utter than his stable cninpanion.Tetratema. over long courses. Mr. Lionel Robinsons colt might do better with a better name, as, to tin? l-st of my knowledge, there never was such a iicrson as Irince Galahad, and Sir Gnlahnd would have been even more meaningless -for why Galahad at all? It may be granted that Decagone presents a difficult problem in nomenclature, unless we come to such names as Decalogue or Ten Little Niggers, but difficult! does not justify a bad choice of name for a good liorse, anil such things should not he permitted. He Goes is already suffering for his hopeless name. In the bad old days there was a horse called "Here I Go With My Kye Out." and it was impossible that any animal so handicapped should gain any distinction save that of the abiding obioquv which lias rested on his name. It is not vet too late to make the obviously desirable changes in regard to Prince Galahad and He Goes. The latter of these was by no means at his best when he ran tills week creditably though lie performed and he would, I am sure, feel immediate relief if given a less burdensome name. It is bad enough to beencumbered by the spurious name of his dam, Feroniu :. and I am sure these things affect hornet as weighty drawback.
