view raw text
MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT AND CONFORMATION CONFORMATIONTHE THE CHIEF FACTORS IN RACING TYPES NOTABLE INSTANCES OF UNKNOWN UNKNOWNDISTANCE DISTANCE RACERS BY W S VOSBURGH In a recent issue of Daily Racing Form I had occasion to reply to many inquiries as to why races over long distance had become so infrequent and I hope I was able to throw some light upon the matter about which scarcely a day passes during the racing season that 1 am not asked the question There is hardly a doubt but the average racegoer prefers what he calls a long race and that his ideal of a horse is one which is known as a stayer instead of a sprinterThe sprinter The definition of a stayer varies according to individual opinion and also with time I can remember when a horse to be considered a stayer was required to race successfully in good company at three and four miles Then the Cup courses of two miles and a half or two miles and a quarter became the test and we had such races at each of our race courses But they too have disappeared The Saratoga Cup race has survived but at one and threequarters miles and has a hard struggle even at that distance to bring a field to the post postPersonally Personally I believe a mile and a half or even a mile and a quarter sufficient to test the stamina of a horse provided there is a strong pace as there usually is Speed is really the criterion of class but a horse should be able to carry his speed beyond a mile in order to test his wind and muscle Racing over such distances as three and four miles is apt to favor horses of lower organization deficient in speed and class but plodders and such horses are seldom successful sires The pace in such races is slow otherwise such horses could not keep with their fields Horses are now trained to run at a higher rate of speed than they did years ago Its seldom a horse is able to carry the high rate now raced for a great distance Per ¬ simmon could as he showed in the race for the Ascot Cup of 1897 whsii he defeated Wink fields Pride The latter was known to be good he won every other race for which he ran that year the Lincolnshire the Dcncaster Cup and the Conseil Municipal at Paris yet Per ¬ simmon won by eight lengths Persimmon was very much above the average horse we might say he approached the ideal idealWhile While it is a fact that horses race in all shapes the average sprinter and stayer differ in type Particularly is this true of the muscular system The muscles of the stayer are usually longer There is a common expression muscled like a quarter horse which means a short heavy muscle like that seen in Bulsc Harmonicon and others They are short and of immense bulk For sudden efforts of speed their power is great but it is not for a long sus ¬ tained effort Such muscles tire from the fact that they are short in the leverage as well as from the bulky coarseness of texture As Bulse and Harmonicon were fine types of the sprinter so Olambala was of the stayer not large but angular light in frame but long muscled Either of the horses named weighed probably 150 pounds more than Olambala and could outrun him over a six seven or eightfurlongs course but not bsyond that for he was a fine stayer stayerYet Yet Olambala was not bred for a stayer His sire Ornus was a colt imported by Messrs J A and A H Morris a son of Bend Or but he made no mark as a stayer The family from which Olambalas dam descended I knew well His greatgranddara Britannia IV was an imported mare by Flying Dutchman I saw nearly all her foals race and none of them showed capacity to stay Her daughter Madame Dudley granddam of Olambala was a beautiful fill fast great in muddy ground but not a stayer Madame Dudleys full brother Brown Prince was taken to England and ran second for the Two Thousand Guineas 1877 but failed utterly for the Derby and other races over distance Both Madame Dudley and Brown Prince were by Lexington Britannia IV had also Brigand a colt by Planet He won the Jersey Derby and managed to stay on that occasion but never after Madame Dudleys daughter Belinda was among the best twoyearelds of her year but at three failed to stay the distance of races for threeyearolds From all of which it would appear that Olambalas ability to stay arose more from his conformation than his breeding breedingEXTERMINATOR EXTERMINATOR A SPLENDID STAYING EXAMPLE EXAMPLEExterminator Exterminator is another of the angular longmuscled type and like most of that type a slow beginner longstriding horses usually are Not attractive to the eye in fact an unattractive gelding After he has had a hard period of racing he is as lean and hungry looking as Caesar described Cassius High in bone and low in flesh his long muscles then show to advantage Exterminator is a larger horse than Olambala was but he has the same characteristics He has shown especial ability to carry high weight over long distances Indeed in his races weight falls as lightly on his back as asA A dewdrop from the lions mane is shook to air airHe He is quite the stayer of recent years and thrice winner of the Saratoga Cup is a record such as no other horse has achieved in the half century during which that event has been contested contestedThe The venous or blood system has also quite an evident influence on the stamina of race horses We often hear it said that a horse quits in a race because his breathing capacity wind gives out Occasionally horses in a race drop dead and it is attributed to the same cause But more often it is due to congestion than to want of wind This is caused by over exertion the blood si more rapidly impelled and expelled to and from the heart and when it is impelled and the heart proceeds to expel it and for want of sufficient venous system to receive it it cannot be driven out congestion of the heart follows Hence the better the veins a horse has the better he should be The thoroughbrd race horse certainly has a greater surface development of veins than coldblooded horses show It may be that his ekin being more thin displays it his hair lying closer to his skin than is the case with other horses horsesIn In a recent article published in Daily Racing Form I had occasion to mention a letter which the late Major Hancock wrote me asking me to select a stallion for him adding that he wanted a stallion that would sire fourmile horses and that I replied nobody would buy fourmile horses I do not think I overstated the case There is no demand for fourmile horses because there are no fourmile races Even if there were very few owners or trainers would start for them The kind of horse now in demand is the shortbodied kind high on the leg and the legs well under them the kind that get their legs quickly quick beginners as they are called It is the kind that from a flatfooted start can strike their stride as soon as the barrier is released and get such a pace that their competitors are carried off their feet They win then races in the first quarter of a mile by this means meansThis This type of horse is now best represented by the Domino and Ben Brush strains and a combination of the two is the acme of breeding A majority of them are of the type described quick as a flash at the start and amazingly fast while they are also hardy and mature early rendering them very desirable for races for twoyearolds They are seldom stayers but they have no need to be there being few races requiring much stamina They are the most profit ¬ able type of horse as they excel in races for twoyearolds which are of greater value and of greater number than those for horses of other ages agesThe The male line of Bonnie Scotland has survived with great popularity but only through his son Bramble Now I saw nearly all the Bonnie Scotlands race and in those days they were not considered stayers They were noted for their grand constitutions and speed the features that made Luke Blackburn the terror of 1880 In mud they were quite invincible and a Bonnie Scotland in the mud became the rallying cry of backers It was due to their great muscular power and their short choppy stride for longstriding horses slip in mud They were closely knit short barreled short muscled hardy beggars and could stand more hard racing than any strain of the time But they did not excel over distances Bushwhacker won at fourmile heats but it was over the muddiest track and on the stormiest day known in the history of racing 1S82 Bramble was the best stayer of the Bonnie Scotlands and proved the best sire His son Ben Brush was of the family type roundmuscled closely knit but notwithstanding he was able to stay a fair distance But that can hardly be claimed for his descendants They make wonderful twoyearolds and some of them train on while here snd there b a stayer but very few Splendid racers as the get of Broomstick have proven they are not stayers Cudgel and Whisk Broom II showed more stamina than the others and they differed from the Broomstick type having more length liberty and longer muscle Sweep covered distances but he raced in a year when trying tackle was poor 1910 1910TRAINERS TRAINERS OFTEN WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OF STAYERS STAYERSWhether Whether there are many stayers among horses now in training is a frequent subject of contention It often happens that a stayer exists in a stable without the knowledge of his trainer because the latter has never tested his stamina and it is never discovered until the horse changes hands The case of the colt Stalwart was a curious one He had small feet and was run in short distance races as a three3earold under the impression that speed was his forte until he gave Delhi so good a finish for the Saratoga Derby that his stable tried him in distance races At once he became a champion winning the Century Stakes at a mile and a half beating Ort Wells Shorthose Major Daingerfield and Dilhi horses which had always beaten him a sweepstakes of 14650 He then won the Annual Champion Stakes two and a quarter miles worth S19000 beating Major Daingerfield Broomstick and Africander winning by three lengths Then he defeated Broomstick for the Hindoo Stakes worth 810000 810000The The stallion Fatherless imported by Major Hancock had a similar experience in England He had always been considered a sprinter and it was not until he was five years old that his true character revealed itself He had been racing in five six and eightfurlong affairs when the stable started him for the Nottingham Handicap at a mile and threeeighths So little was thought of his chance that odds of 10 to 1 were freely laid against him But he won by five lengths and showed such ability to carry his speed over a distance that his stabla awoke to the fact that it possessed a stayer instead of a sprinter The next season he proved it by win ning the Great Metropolitan of 1893 at two miles and a quarter from a field of fifteen j No one will claim for the strain of Domino the capacity to race over a distance Domino TTES one of the fleetest colts ever Been but a nonstayer Yet his line has been preserved by Commando alone a horse that differed more from the type of Domino than any of his descendants being less closely knit less short in his muscle and having greater length all over As a result he showed greater ability to cover a distance than the other Dominos We risk nothing in saying that from appearances the mare Emma C bred to Domino and foaling Commando saved the Domino line She was a big rather coarse mare by the Australian horse Darebin of the Melbourne line and equal to high weights as we know having handicapped her Her son Commando was a coarse not to say most common looking colt but sluggish good tempered and despite his looks a real race horse He was not in the Futurity from the fact that Billy Lakeland owned Emma C at the time Mr Keene made his nominations Had he been Tod Sloan would have had more trouble than he did in landing Ballyhoo Bey in front Of the get of Star Shoot which have shown the most stamina I would name Grey Lag and Star Charter Both of these were of a longermuscled type than most of the Star Shoots Spendthrift was able to stay a distance although his heavy shoulders would have forbidden the hope His sons Hastings Lamplighter and Lazzarone could stay but another son Bankrupt could not Kingston another cf his sons was first class up to a mile and a quarter but at a mile and a half he had enough it is significant that he not only had heavy shoulders but was of the closelyknit roundmusclwl type Only one of Kingstons sons Kings Courier proved a stayer Speaking again of the Star Shoots one of the best of them Sir Barton was not built on the lines of a stayer yet he could stay far enough for presentday purpoaea I believe it will bs admitted that large horses make the beat sprinters and that the beat stayers are of moderate size But there is no hard and fast rule Conformation I believe has moro to do with stamina than pedigree has and that it explains some of the contradictions of pedigree
