view raw text
GO DOLPHIN ARABIANS MYTHIC STORY Case of tlio Helmslcy Turk Breeding of Tap Hoot Hares Largely Fabulous BY SALVATOR SALVATORRecently Recently I contributed to Daily Racing Form some observations entitled British Breeding 3Iytho1ogy which were reproduced in the Thor ¬ oughbred Record They have I perceive attract ¬ ed the attention of a metropolitan critic who in the Sun and Herald of June 13 attempts to make me out a blundering ignoramus and the con elusions incorporated in my article ridiculous I have read these comments with care and Will ask for a bit of yqur space to rebut his criticism criticism3Iy 3Iy statements are attacked in regard to two different horses among the founders of the Brit ¬ ish thoroughbred breed i e the socalled Godol phiu Arabian and the Helmsley Turk TurkConcerning Concerning the first of the two my critic pre ¬ sents nothing new and nothing that in any way disturbs what I wrote His great point is that I blundered in saying that the Godolphin was fabled to have lncn presented to the Louis XIV of France by the Emperor of 3Iorocco which as the horse could not have been foaled before 1724 and Louis XIV died in 1715 was manifestly pure fiction The French king that figured in the tale was Louis XV says the critic which makes the tradition historically correcf However all this is quite immaterial The legend that the Godolphin horse had once belonged to a king of France to whom it had been presented by an emiieror of Morocco did not originate until many years after his advent in England In fact it is unlikely that it was ever heard of until he had been gathered to his fathers What we do know about the horse is that he was considered so worthless that he was twice given away and finally was being usetl as a teaser when ho accidentally happened to get Lath which proved a good race horse and caused a demand for his services The English Stud Book discreetly omits all references to any kings of France or emperors of 3Iorocco in its account of the Godolphin horse The old writers on the British turf wrote variously about Louis XIV and XV in connection with the Godolphin horse And many of the fables alnmt him that have been in ¬ corporated in turf tradition originated in the highly romantic tale entitled The King of the Winds by the French novelist Eugene Sue which ap ¬ peared nearly a century 320 circa 1S40 1S40If If my critic considers my statement that there is absolutely not a stitch of credible evidence to show that the Godolphin was anything but a small native French horse ridiculous he will have to take up the cudgels not with me but with the Earl of Suffolk it distinguished peer and turf authority who in a celebrated work first advanced the identity in type of the famous progenitor with the French native breed of Tarbes horses horsesPermit Permit me now n slight analysis of the second attack in which my statements anent the Helmsley Turk were impugned I stated that this horse was owned by the notorious George Villiers Duke of Buckingham favorite of James I and Charles I of England This horse I said could not have been foaled later than 1025 as his owner was assassinat ¬ ed in 1028 hence he must hnve lived to the age of sixty if he made covers attributed to him in the first volume of the Stud Book But says my critic it was not the first George Villiers Duke of Buckingham that owned the Helmsley Turk it was his son of the same name the sec ¬ ond duke who flourished ytars later in the reign of Charles II Hence my statements are ridicu ¬ lous etc and the alleged covers are all right rightFACTS FACTS REGARDING HELMSLEY TURK TURKNow Now here are the facts regarding the Hclmsley Turk so far as I have been able to ascertain llicin and there are no others worth mention of record that researches through many authorities have revealed In many old works on the thor ¬ oughbred he is named as the first oriental horse of note subsequent to the Markham Arabian which was owned by James I who reigned 1C031025 In the Fourth Part of the first volume of the English Stud Book there are listed the earliest Arabians Barbs and Turks that flourished in England Here the Markham Arabian comes first the Helmsley Turk second and Places White Turk third thirdThere There are two other things which identify the Helmsley Turlf wiflt tfie first and not tile second Villiers Duke of Buckingham In the first place there are crosses to him in various old English pedigrees that are impossible if he flourished after 1CCO In the second place we find it stated in the History of Newmarket and Annals of the Turf by J P Horse London 3 vols 1SSI5 that In 1123 Buckingham meaning the first George Vil ¬ liers owned some of the best race horses in England and after the fiasco of the Spanish match lie imported a cargo of the best Eastern horses ob ¬ tainable I find no evidence that the second George Villiers ever imported any Oriental horses and everything goes to prove that the Ilelmsley Turk was one of those imported by his father In my former article I placed him at about Ki25 on the basis of Ilores statement I may mention that Ilores work which is now scarce and diffi ¬ cult to obtain is an invaluable storehouse of facts about the origin of the English turf and thorough ¬ bred breed breedI I might cite many more facts and dates bearing upon these matters but at this season of the year with the affairs of the day to occupy the attention of horsemen ancient history discussed in detail is apt to prove uninteresting To those who are genuinely interested in it however a study of the facts of record will prove worth while If I may be allowed the observation I will remark that tin study of pedigrees and early turf history has occu ¬ pied me for the larger part of a lifetime and that along with it I have made an equally close study of the political and social periods in which the racing breed came into being My critic who rushes into print to charge me with ignorance has yet I think much to learn in the premises And I cannot avoid saying that anyone who takes the pains to inform himself must become imbued with the feeling expressed in my original article namely that the taproots of many of our most famous families are replete with fanciful and incredible crosses and that the lives of the founders are in large part mythical
