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OUR DISCREDITED BREED Champion Man o War Not Eligible to English Stud Book. Many Keen to See Him Go Abroad to Vindicate the Despised "Outsider." BY C J. FITZ GERALD. NEW YORK, X. Y., October 20. Many of the "racing and breeding enthusiasts of this coimtry who haye come to the conclusion that Man o War is capable ;of taking the measure of any thoroughbred in the world, and who are sanguine that the son ofJPatr Play will found a family endowed with many of the characteristics which have made him superior to anything hitherto known in the annals of the turf, will be surprised to learn that despite Ills splendid career he nor any of his prospective children; will be eligible for registration in the English Stud Book. It. is this fact which has made those acquainted with the situation so keen to see the horse sent abroad in order that he might demonstrate his superiority in such a contest as the Ascot Gold Cup. Mr. Riddles recent announcement that the colt will never be permitted to leave the land of his birth is final, however, and no matter how great this countrys pride m:iy be in the three-year-old and his accomplishments, there will always bethe remembrancp .that the British authorities would not v hijavfttdace tethrifilcialjaurtresistry, heeatjieVpf Tthe Leiingtoa cross in his pedigree. In speaking of this fact a few days ago Major August Belmont, the. breeder of Man o War, who deplored that Mr. Riddle had determined to retire tie great colt before he I ad shown, his class abroad In such, .races as the Ascot Gold Cup, remarked: j.li is most unfortunate that Man o War isnt Solng-over to add another laurel to our discredited brped If you take the. Derbys and estimate the number of times American -bred horses or those with a large amount of American blood in their make-up have scored in this classic, it will be found that our average is high. Iroquois, bred in the ."United States, won it, and while Orby and Durbar were both foaled abroad they inherited, throUgh their dams, a liberal allowance of the blood of -pur old-fashioned families. When jrou consider the small number of horses we have sent abroad nnd take into consideration the successes scored by them,, the average speaks well for our thoroughbred. The". entire question is purely academic, and had iti origin in the fact that the English authorities, after deciding that families giving proof of their excellence through their performances would be accepted, later came to the conclusion that only those showing a clear title from the English to the American Stud Book would be deemed worthy of a plude in their records. Orby was admitted under the first-named condition, nnd it is well for the Eug-lislj authorities that he was, as the get of this Derby winner, whose dam Rhoda B. was by Hanover, have sl6wn great prowess, Orpheus and Diadem finishing, first and third respectively in the Champion Stakes only a week ago. The inconsistency of the rutin?, .however, is shown by the fact that a full brother pf Orby would not be accepted for registration at the present time. It is this peculiar ruling which"" has been the target of the shafts of sarcasm leveled by the best of the British turf critics. LEXINGTON FAMILY TABOOED. It was thus that the entire Lexington family, one ot the best and most prolific of all the early American thoroughbred, became taboo. The blood of Lexington, mighty race horse, and record holder, is found in the pedigrees of many of our best present-day performers. Because it is impossible to trace his grandsires female line from the American to the English Stud Book, Man o War and; scores of others whose deeds proclaim them tljoroughtired fail of recognition at the hands of the English authorities. Spendthrift, the great jrrnndslre of Man o War was from the Lexington dam Aerolite. Durbar, which won the Derby for the late H. B. Duryea, acquired the bar sinister through the Lexington mare Minnie Minor, which threw Wlnda. his great grariddam. The-- early records of many American thoroughbreds were not. as carefully compiled as they should have been. It was this which was responsible for the following announcement by Sanders D. Bruce, the original compiler of the American Stud Book, who in an introduction to Volume C said: "There are a number of animals in this volume which cannot he authentically traced the requisite five crosses, but by virtue of their great racing excellence, and producing capacity, their retention In the. wprk is justified. They- are doubtless thoroughbred, but owing to the deuth of their breeders and loss of records their pedigrees cannot be traced. We have been endeavoring for some years to establish the pedigrees of several families which have shown great excellence, not only as performers, but as producers of great race horses, both in the male and female lines., notably the Duke of Magenta, Spendthrift and Picayune families. The Spendthrift or Melody family undoubtedly traces to imported Kitty .Fisher through Kitty Medley, sister to Mel-nan-Yolume 1, pages 088 and 092. Kitty Medley, Volume 1, Iage 0S2, was the Medley mare brought to Kentucky." NO DOUBT ABOUT SPENDTHRIFT. W. H. Rowe, registrar of the Jockey Club, when seen at the office of the Jockey Club a few days ago, said: There is no doubt in the world about Spendthrift being a thoroughbred. The hardest part of this English Stud Boorf regulation is that it is accepted by our own "Oepartmeut of Agriculture, when it comes to the importation of blood stock from abroad. If they ?annot show a certificate of registration they cannot be imported duty free. It" yrorks a hardship on the American breeder who may" "Wish to patronize a foreign sire. Take the case of tile tllly Afternoou, by Prince Palatine Motiee. Mr. Whitney sent the mare abroad a number of. years ago. When he wanted to bring her daughter, Afternoon, home he had to pay duty on her." It was in 1901 that Messrs. Weatherby and Son, the official compilers of the English "Stud Book, said in the preface to Volume 19: "The increased importation of horses and mares bred in the United States and Australia, which, as stated in the last volume, though accepted in the stud hook of their own country cannot be traced back in all cases to the thoroubhbred stock imported from England, from which they more or less all claim to be descended, induced the publishers to refer the question of the admission of such animals into the Stud Book to the stewards of The Jockey Club as the highest authority on nil matters connected with the turf. The stewards, after kindly consulting most of the principal breeders, came to the conclusion that any animals claiming admission should be able to prove satisfactorily some eight or nine crosses of pure blood, to trace back for at least a century, and to show such performances of its immediate family on the turf as to warrant the belief in the purity of its blood. Therefore, all the imported horses and mares which are included hi this volume have been submitted to this test." In 1901 the same authorities printed the following notice in Volume 20 of the Stud Book: "The editors beg to inform subscribers that since the last volume of the Stud Book was published they have had cause to reconsider the advisability of admitting into the Stud Book horses and mares which cannot be traced to be a thoroughbred root, but which have fulfilled the requirements given in the preface of Volume 19. They have decided that In the best interests of the English Stud Book no horse or mare can be1 admitted unless it can be traced to a strain already accepted in the earlier volume of the book. The editors must therefore rescind the notice published in Volume 19."
