Stamina of Dominos Line: Miss Daingerfield Ascribes Its Reputation for Nonstaying to Too Much Juvenile Racing, Daily Racing Form, 1921-09-20

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STAMINA OF DOMINOS LINE Miss Daingerfield Ascribes Its Reputation for Nonstaying to Too Much Juvenile Racing. AVON, N. Y., September 19. There has been so much discussion about the staying qualities in the so-called Domino family, which lias been in the public eye for years, chiefly through the triumphs ot members of the breed in the two-year-old stake futures that Miss Elizabeth Daingerfield, who is here tltis week as one of the judges of the hunter breeding classes at the Livingston County Fair, was asked her opinion regarding the racing qualities of the descendants of the renowned son of Ilimyar and Manuie Gray. Miss Daingerfield was the chief aid of her father. Major Foxhall A. Daingerfield, when that distinguished turfman and breeding expert was in charge of the Castleton Farm of his brother-in-law, James R. Keene. She, therefore, is qualified to pass judgment on the family which has achieved such a great measure of success on both sides of the Atlantic. There are many who claim that Commando and his descendants have made the Domino family, but it is not to be overlooked that Disguise and Cap and Bells, the former winner of the Jockey Club Stakes and the latter conqueror in a fine field in the Oaks, two of the best of the English racing events, were both by the black whirlwind and that they have both played their part in perpetuating the fame of one of the greatest two-year-olds that the American turf has ever known. Disguise will live forever in American and French racing history through the merits of his daughters, notably Maskette and Pope Joan. He could stay, and so could Cap and Bells. Both were from daughters of Galopin. The chief successes achieved by the family have come through mating with foreign families of the stoutest blood, Commando being from the big rougli mare Emma C, by the Australian sire Darebin. The most pronounced successes of this horse in the stud have in turn come through unions with English mares, Peter Pan being from Cinderella, by Hermit; Colin from Pastorella, by Springfield; Celt from Maid of Erin, by Amphiou, and Superman from Anomaly, by Bend Or. All of these could stay as is evidenced by their winning the best of our races up to a mile and a quarter, and the failure of the progeny, by and large, to race on has been one of the live topics wherever those interested in the thoroughbred are wont to congregate. When Bunting, by Peter Pan, won the Futurity recently witli Galantman, by Superman, second, and Dream of Allah, by Colin, third, the expression was general that the Domino line was great for speed, but it lacked staying qualities and had to be buttressed with stout blood constantly in order to achieve success when the sterner tests of the three-year-old period came up for decision. ENTERTAINED NO FALSE HOPES. The failure of Prudery and Tryster to stay this year unquestionably had much to do with this belief, and Harry Payne Whitney, the owner of Bunting, who is too sensible to have any illusions about horses, voiced the general opinion when he said after the Futurity that Bunting, in his estimation, was not a great colt, and would never win one of the big events at a mile and a quarter or over an a three-year-old. Listen to Miss Daingerfield on the Domino family, "and racing in general. "The trouble," said this remarkable young woman who is charged with the responsibility of caring for Man o War, "is not with the Domino family, but with our system of racing. We have too much money offered for stakes for two-year-olds. Breeders and owners with a desire for quick return on their investment have encouraged a system which saps the vitality of our horses at a period when they should be making strength. If the bulk of our big racing rewards went into events for three-year-olds, and three-year-olds and over, there would be au incentive to keep a big, growy colt over and develop him to a point where tests of a mile and a half would be well within its powers. "Take the case of Domino himself," resumed Miss Daingerfield. "No two-year-old ever had a more strenuous campaign than lie had. He was raced with big weights up until he hated the sight of a race course, and of Taral, his jockey. In the days when this country had a notable lot of stayers, the prizes for two-year-olds were limited in number. The total of races participated in by Salvator, Kingston, Hanover, Longstreet and Tenny would not equal that of some of our present day two-year-olds. How can we hope for three-year-olds with sound limbs and the sort of constitutions thoroughbreds should possess in order to make prograss, if we dont give them a chance for development along rational lines? "One of the few of the Domino tribe that has had a chance to show his merits was Luke McLuke. He was not raced as a two-year-old, but at three he could run far and fast. There would have been others like him under the same circumstances. The Domino family has more than a dozen staying lines. It is full of four-mile blood and we are not going to see the last of it for many a day. Let us do away with the infant prodigies and get down to the production of real sound horses that will play their part in the development of the type."


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1920s/drf1921092001/drf1921092001_1_6
Local Identifier: drf1921092001_1_6
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800