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AMERICAN TURF LITERATURE SCAN FEW WORKS OF VALUE EXTANT PORTRAYING THE HIS HISTORY TORY OF RACING AND BREEDING IN THIS COUNTRY COUNTRYAS AS WELL AS OF THE MEN WHO FOSTERED THE THECONTINUANCE CONTINUANCE OF THE SPORT AND INDUSTRY Two very interesting books to lovers of racing have lately appeared ono being Tod Sloans auto biography and the other that of John Porter the great Knglish trainer This is not the lirst appcaranc of Porter between covers however for some years ago he made his literary debut with his Kingselere the story of his connection with that famous ducal establishment for which his pupils won so man classics classicsTod Tod Sloan is I think the lirst and only American jockey that has ever written or if he did no write furnished the materials for a book and I can recollect no American trainer that ever publishei one Any lover of the blood horse who wishes to read up on the Hritish thoroughbred has a whol library at his disposal enough literatim to employ his leisure hours to the end of his life wore he t round out a century Hut with our own it is unfortunately exactly the reverse The number of book devoted to the subject is small and of those almost the entire array is out of print and obtainable onl by diligent search among secondhand dealers and as a rule at considerable outlay It is really lamentable fact that the lore tin history of the American thoroughbred has never been written excep in the most sketchy and fragmentary way and that it exists for the most part only in the Hies of oh turf journals of which few exist The materials might lie assembled from which to compile a standan and authentic work but it would require arduous labor and much time to get them together as iniicl more to sift and arrange them and as much more to produce thereafter the finished work Who will eve undertake this labor which in all likelihood will have to lie one of love The sad probability is n one Only an enthusiast could properly accomplish it and he would have to have an angel willing t furnish the sinews of war I have often thought that an ideal solution of this question could however be found And it is this thisLot Lot Mr W S Vosbnrgh undertake the literary portion of the production and The Jockey Club linanci it Mr Visbnrsh is the ablest writer on the thoroughbred Unit America has produced and the lies equipped to iianiflo the subject in a mnstorlyJway lie has at his command abundant matorTals in tin way of authentic data and in addition these ne reinforced by nearly a half century of personal contac with the principal personalities human and equine that have made turf history On the other hand The Jockey Club is a rich and inllnontial body among whoso members are many gentlemen with a de ¬ voted interest in the thoroughbred for himself alone So I make the suggestion quite on my own initiative but in the hope that it may not fall upon entirely unfertile ground groundI I have before me as I write Vol I of the first American publication specifically devoted to the thor ¬ oughbred horse the American Turf IJegister and Sporting Magazine of which the title page bears tlm inscription Haltimorc Edited and Published by 1 S Skinner J 1 Toy Printer 1830 It consists of the numbers of this magazine for its lirst year which extends from September 1S2J tu August 1S0 Previous to its advent the race horse had received publicity only in the pages of agri ¬ cultural and other periodicals notably the old American Farmer and Skinner was therefore the pioneer in his field His nearest follower was Patrick Xesbit Edgar who in 1853 published his Ameri ¬ can IJnoc Turf IJegister Sportsmans Herald and Ceneral Stud Hook These two works are really the basis of all our racing lore However neither of them is strictly speaking an organic literary produc ¬ tion Uather they are collections of data as their titles and mode of issue would imply FRANK FORESTERS VALUABLE TURF LITERATURE The first attempt to write a history of the American race horse as distinct from publishing a tun magazine or stud book was made by Henry AVilliam Herbert an Englishman who passed a great part o his life in this country and became under the pen name of Frank Forester by far the most noted am authoritative writer of hi day upon turf topics In 1S 7 he brought out in two large volumes a worl which bore the following title Frank Foresters Horse and Horsemanship of the tnited States am Hritish Provinces of North America It was published in New York by Stringer Townsend 2 Proad way and in England by Trubncr Co the latter linn still being among the prominent ones of London I have the good fortune tu own a copy of the lirst edition of this now venerable work today a scare item though copies of the subsequent and cheaper ones are not very diilicult to procure The origin edition was a fine piece of bookmaking two stately volumes superbly printed on the finest of paper witl wide margins and striking illustrations engraved on steel the binding being elaborately stamped witli gilt arabesques and emblematic figures This copy was purchased at time of publication by the latt Joseph Cairn Simpson once the owner of imported Bonnie Scotland and the breeder of Marion by Mal ¬ colm the mare pronounced by Hruce Lowe the greatest of all American producing dams It was pre ¬ sented to the writer by Mr Simpson as a token of long friendship some years before his death in 1JOti 1JOtiThere There are some quaint features distinguishing Frank Foresters magnum opus For instance the List of Authorities which lie gives begins with Tin Old Testament and includes various Latin work by Pliny and Quintus Ciirtins and a Crock one by Xenophon sources which a modern turf historian wouh not be apt to utilize The Dedication has a very pleasant and warmhearted ring and reads as fol ¬ lows To all true lovers of the horse the noblest of the animal creation ever rendered subject to tlie hand of man his most valuable best and bravest servant dauntless in danger enduring in extremity uncom ¬ plaining in distress those volumes are respectfully dedicated as a tribute to the qualities of the animal and to the feelings of those who duly appreciate him by their friend and servant Frank Forester ForesterThe The first volume of the work was devoted wholly to the thoroughbred and comprised iL pages Steel plates were given of imp Oloncoe Sir Arclsy American Eclipse Hlack Maria Fashion Pryor Hoston and Lexington and there were various additional wood engravings It proved so popular that edition aftet edition was printed and finally in 1S71 subsequent to the authors death it was revised and brought up to date by the late S I Hruce the compiler of the American Stud Hook HookAMERICAN AMERICAN THOROUGHBRED HISTORY SCANT AND SUPERFICIAL SUPERFICIALIn In all the years that have since elapsed no other work on the American thoroughbred comparing with this the inaugural one has appeared that is in so far as its scope and comprehensiveness wore con ¬ cerned Considering the primitive conditions which still surrounded racing in Frank Foresters day its immense subsequent growth its present status and extent that this should be so is not less than aston ¬ ishing and incidentally is anything but a compliment to the intellectual or rollcctive side of our sport In this regard we are simply nowhere beside our Hritish cousins who as stated in the beginning of these observations have a whole library of books upon their thoroughbreds and his history at their command with now editions thereto constantly being made madeIs Is this not one of the reasons why England has managed despite the most strenuous competition to maintain bur supremacy as tin fountainhead of thoroughbred virtue Her breeding and racing arc at ¬ tended with an amount of thinking and study that with us are absolutely unknown On the other hand the sport of harness racing or trotting which also originally sprung up in England and was transplanted from there to the American Colonies at the same time as running racing has with us completely out ¬ stripped and dwarfed the parent stock and in this connection the fact may be cited that thp literature of the American trotter is very large in extent and solid in character dozens of books havingVbecii pub ¬ lished upon the siibjeet for every one that ever has about our runners All the world comes to Amer ¬ ica today for trotters both for racing and breeding purposes but it does not come here in the same way for runners and running blood Yet it is idle to say that such might not have been the case had the same effort been made by our thoroughbred horsemen We have the same superior advantages for the breeding of runners that wi have for that of trotters and there is no reason in the world why we should not have succeeded in as great degree in the one field as in the other otherA A celebrated horseman of the last century was Count LehndorfT a Herman nobleman of high posi ¬ tion and influence in his own country who made a special study of the English thoroughbred and his AMERICAN TURF LITERA TURE SCANT Continued from first page performances and became a recognized authority upon them even in England a fart almost unprece ¬ dented In 1SS3 Count LehndorIT published in London a book called Horse lireeding Recollections in which he gave his judgment upon the status of the Hritish thoroughbred at that date and his ideas for the future In closing his hook Count Lehndorff made the statement that the Hritish racer was already deteriorating largely on account of close inbreeding etc and that a virile oiitcross would soon be neces ¬ sary in order to preserve the breed as the best in the world This oiitcross he stated must be obtained in America whose breeders wen favored with advantages nonexistent in England and were producing a type of the highest value He advised Hritish breeders to turn their gaze across the Atlantic when in inquest quest of material for the better At that date Count Lchndor I n mi ii Kniivii the victories of the American Iroquois in the Derby and St Leger of Foxhall in the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire and the Grand Prix de Paris and of Parole in the City and Suburban and the Epsom Gold Cup were so to speak still ringing through the air Hut at that psychological moment a very un ¬ fortunate thing happened for the realization of the Counts prophecy Foxhall pronounced by William Day the best horse over saddled in England was placed in the stud there with great eclat Many good marcs were mated with him and he made a conspicuous failure as a sire Had he succeeded how dif ¬ ferently subsequent breeding history might have been written writtenFOXHALL FOXHALL AND ENGLISH FAILURES AND PREJUDICE PREJUDICEWhy Why did Foxhall fail as a sire Hritish critics were unanimous that it was because of his deficien ¬ cies in pedigree Hy King Alfonso Jamaica by Lexington he traced to various American ancestors which eventually ran to the woods instead of to orthodox Hritish or Oriental sources This fact was stressed and heavily stressed and it reacted disastrously upon American blood in England resulting some decades later in the ruling which has barred from the Hritish Stud Hook a large proportion of our thoroughbreds on the basis that they are not thoroughbred thoroughbredNevertheless Nevertheless at the sami time Fochall was failing as a sire in England many other stallions of exalted reputation as performers ami of the most unimpeachable blood from the Hritish standpoint were also failing for only a comparative few stallions among the many who perform brilliantly ever amount to anything as progenitors Moreover long since Foxhalls day animals with tainted American blood have made extensive conquests on the Kritish turf ending with Orby and his son Grand Parade last years Derby winner Instead of using American blood England rockribbed in her conservative prejudice and practice has preferred to go to Australia for new infusion Is the Australian horse superior to our own It is very much to be doubted Hut he has no American cold crosses and is in a sense purely Hritish having been bred up from exclusively Hritish stock Australian racing and breeding are after all only a branch of Englands own activities Meanwhile America leans herself ever more and more heavily upon Eng ¬ land for upbuilding material in breeding and perhaps before many more generations have elapsed will do so with what to all intents and purposes is unanimity unanimityReturning Returning in conclusion to our original subject the lack of American books upon the thoroughbred it may be noticed that fifteen ytars have elapsed since anything of the kind of consequence has ap ¬ peared In 105 the late apt T 15 Merry better known as Hidalgo printed his The American Thoroughbred and that same season the late Charles E Trevathans liook bearing precisely the same title also came from the press The latter volume was confessedly popular and sketchy in character and while agreeably written is of small value for reference or preservation but for the fact that any work of the kind is so scarce Captain Merry attempted something more serious and worth while but was hampered in the tiiiancial end of his undertaking and in the end contented himself with putting to ¬ gether something in the nature of a medley a collection of odds and ends and obiter dicta hastily and unsystematically thrown together Yet the student will timl in these pages many things to detain his attention and many that it is well to remember Hut every year serves to emphasize the need for a com ¬ petent and uptodate bnok upon this truly great subject and adds to the reproach that we have none
