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i I Maryland and the Thoroughbred v n b 1 o of f; n n s r Y j j c a t r s " i i i , : , . I " ; i 1 . 7 " 0 3 i " j I 4 0 s 3 " lt ? s e of f . !e a to to Fonrth Installment. KH Again in the stud of John A. Scott of Ifc It Woodville, Miss., in 1831 we find a bay the the mare by Sir Archy, granddam Lady Boling- 5f if 0 broke Maryland blood and so it goes. by uv Tychicus was put into tiaining by Dr. Duvall son son Prince George County and he became ner famous. Tnu The on But we cannot leave the story of the old of horses behind us without mentioning the is is j mare Ariel, which "certainly ranked with the best race horses of any age or clime." It was said "we doubt whether any horse of any T did good running, attended region ever more ti. tried with such extensive and constant travel." gta Her pedigree traced directly from Partner, Othello, Medley, etc She was bred in 1822 ul by Gerrit Vandeveer of Flatbush, L. I., by du duced American Eclipse, dam by Financier. Finan- cQi could cier, a famous horse, was owned and prob- were y ably bred by Isaac Duckett of Maryland, So go the land of his maternal ancestry. This great Look 0 mare Ariel was filled with Maryland blood. ul It is a most extraordinary thing how the fro from. staying qualities of certain blood lines come out time after time, and long-distance races, r for the sake of the thoroughbred blood, f j should steadily be encouraged. The public enjoys them and they develop the breed. .nl One "of the old colored servants who used the in the late seventies for to be a jockey . by Governor Bowie, is a strong advocate of f long-distance races ; and when I asked him why it was he answered: "Why, it develops the horse. It takes horses with bottom that can stand the pace. These short races are nothing. Its ting-a-ling, theyre off! Who are wins? Thats all." , In the old days the feats of tho horses we are talking of were extraordinary when I -. measured by the modern standards. No , wonder their names and blood have endured. Pc pect For instance, Lady Lightfoot ran publicly r S 191 miles and won 159 miles. Ariel ran 315 1 P miles and won 42 races out of 57; from New . P York to Georgia lost and won about 0,000. tu ful Before his match with Post Boy on Long t i Island, John Bascomb had been trained in i ar and Georgia for a match with Argyle, on April 1 th the 12, "he immediately started for the north i pc calculated for walking over a country well and even galloping exercise." "He had had a long and hard training and required the 1 relaxation that his journey afforded him, m to recruit." He arrived on Long Island in in May 10. It had been a severe winter on ti Long Island. Bascomb won. A walk from , -n Georgia to Long Island was "relaxation." Q Or, This quality was called "bottom." n. So much, then, for the old Maryland horses. Let us take up for a moment to a few tJ, the thoughts on breeding. Q of In thoroughbred breeding the family lines g are as clearly defined as in human life, and , I to, reference is always made to the female lines, to which are called the tap root. This has gone g so far in England that a distinguished writer " be by the name of Bruce Lowe divided the tap p roots into some forty or more, and all British Ij thoroughbreds can trace to one of these orig-? inal mares. Only seven of these were Eastern, or imported, horses, seven Barbs and no 0 sl Arabs. The rest were native, and, in the e c: male line, as has been told, the desert blood j 11 asserted itself only through three individuals. . The writers of modern times often become e P exceedingly theoretical and discourse at !t P length on the value of certain of these fami-:l ;- lies as against the value of others, from n b the point of view of speed, endurance, sound- I- i is ness. hereditary health, disposition, confor- -- si mation and many other points of view; r, f and it is this spirit and love of analysis is a that forces one often to hark back in Amer- n ica to the old Maryland families. f QUESTIONS IN BREEDING. s! The two important questions in thorough- i- n br-jd breeding are: First, the mingling of 3f 0 blood lines, or how shall the animal be e v bred ; second, local conditions, or where shall II the animal be raised, and why. There are re J; many theories, on the interrelationship of 3 11 blood lines. Experts express their opinions ls f reely different theories in somewhat the ie r same way; the same theories in different rtt 11 ways. There are those who say that there re should be a balanced infusion of the blood Kl of the three great horses Ellipse, Matchem m and Herod. There is no doubt that such ;1j i breeding has brought success in many instances, a- and can be regarded as a strong ig il- and normal form of outcrossing. There is j3 at at every reason to find particular grounds for or 1 For instance, the ie ! support of this theory. " English horses had become strong in Eclipse se blood. Sh. Ul A moderate handicap horse by the name ne j 7.00 of Roi Herode ran in England in 1902. He -je 12.20 was a horse of beautiful conformation, j 9.40 40 splendid French Herod blood, of great en- n : durance, but of no great speed. When bred el j to a fast mare, filled to the brim with Eclipse se blood, he produced the sensational speed ej . marvel of England, The Tetrarch. Again, in 2.20 Sb. V,0 American mares, also well filled with Herod 0j France and England and nj AO 40 blood, when sent to 2.60 .and mated witli their stallions, have of late years : produced two Derby winners, and had many other great successes. Speaking generally. England is filled with Eclipse blood; France Cg has ample Herod blood ; there is an impor- Sh. Sh. tant amount of Matchem in each, and Amer-.00 ir 5.00 ica has been alive with Herod blood with 1.00 00 sufficient Eclipse. And now, through Hast 3.60 G0 ings. Fair Play, Man o War, Omar Khayyam . and others, there is an ample abundance 0 of Matchem. A BREEDING MAXIM. Sh, Sh. A second theory of breeding is expressed sed 3.60 1.60 by the sentence, "Return to the stallion the ne 2.S0 f-80 best blood of his dam." This, as you can an 6.S0 80 see, places in the center of the pedigree the same line of blood, and an excellent illus- " . tration is the good filly Careful, which won at Pimlico in 1921, for the dam of her sire lr. is by Isinglass, and the sire of her dam is Sh Sh Star Shoot, by Isinglass. Another way of 3.60 I-00 expressing it is that it doubles the Isinglass a,E.s 2.00 75? in the right relationship. It sounds compli-cated, p.. 4.00 but the reason is clear if one thinks . a bit. One must assume that the top line of stallions are all good horses, but of all the progeny of any given one, the son repre-Sh ,r sented at the breeders pick; and it was the . 0 Sh. 3.40 3 40 blood of his particular dam that made him unl 10.60 o!oo better than his many brothers of one-half 2.00 60 relationship. This argument applies in final-itty to the stallion to be used: What made a . him better than his brothers the blood of his llis dam. Then give him some more in the dam lam of the proposed colt. It is a case of intensi-Sh- Qsi" Sh. fication. 5.40 5.40 A third method, which is not seen so often ten 3.60 llSJ in horse pedigrees, is an idea which has been een 6.20 followed successfully in cattle breeding. It t is is the return of the strong sire blood, but in n a a KH Ifc It the the 5f if 0 by uv son son ner Tnu The on of is is j T ti. tried gta ul du duced cQi could were y So go Look 0 ul fro from. r f j .nl the . by f are , I , Pc pect r S 1 P . P tu ful t i i ar and 1 th the i pc 1 m in in ti -n , Q Or, n. tJ, the Q of g I , to, to g " be p Ij 0 sl e c: j 11 . e P at !t P ;- n b I- i is -- si r, f is a n f s! i- n of 3f 0 be e v II re J; 11 of 3 ls the ie r rtt 11 re Kl m ;1j a- ig is j3 for or 1 the ie se ne j He -je j en- n : el j se ej . in 0j and nj : Cg ir with . 0 of sed the ne can an illus- " . won sire lr. is of a,E.s p.. . line all ,r the 0 . him unl made a . his llis dam lam Qsi" often ten been een It t is is in n a a different relationship from the above method. is superimposing the strongest blood in sire line of the female. For instance, one has a mare by Broomstick, which was Ben Brush, breed the mare to another or grandson of Ben Brush, thereby su- perimposing the strong Ben Brush blood. wn white idea in both cases seems to be based of of the thought that one cannot have enough not not a good thing, but of course the risk the the run of too close inbreeding. me CASES OF INBItEEDIXG. in m. Inbreeding is a method that has often been oil: and with interesting results ; for in- ins stance, the horse Ultimus, a son of Com- of of mando, which in turn was a son of Domino, hig Ultimus dam was also by Domino. He pro- for for phenomenal speed. All his progeny ne: next run, but it could not be said they 1 generally healthy or generally sound, est he failed to attain the highest marlc ho out, however, for the daughters of j lca lease Ultimus as brood mares. They will be heard an; and The dangers of close inbreeding are P greater than its benefits. Cf: Then there is the theory of breeding which ve follows success and fashion, and conse- -ri quently after a while might tend toward inbreeding of the whole race. For instance, for great Man o War is by Fair Play, foaled ri a Rock Sand mare. It may have been a fortuitous combination or not, but Mad PC the Hatter is bred the same way, and so is Sporting Blood, all big winners and good I,r m campaigners ; and so the Rock Sand mares eagerly sought after, aiid will many J fall. times be bred to Fair Play horses, or those horses closely related to him. Fl Again, there is the haphazard breeder, who Sv knows what he is doing, and does not ex- as much as he receives. He sends a g, good mare to a good horse and obtains tn perhaps an exceptional colt. Then the ex- " fri perts come along and show why such a care- " Aj mating could not fail. The truth is that t there is a narrow margin between success 3 jj, failure, and in the above instance all jy elements happened to spell success and 1 r perhaps particularly health. STRONG ENGLISH LINES. is Jf In England in modern times there are a t w number of lines any four of which, if found 1 pl ply the third have to c generation, meant success s time after time. When found, why delve , into theory? The lines of St. Simon, Bend . Hampton, Amphion and Barcaldine make 2 I1 his names to conjure with. To these are added the Australian lines Trenton and Carbine blood and now v. late years the Roi Herode blood of g France. These are the lines one must look as and the true receipt is to breed the best the best, and constantly be on the look-r out for newly refreshed lines which may Q successful, and to study the individual qualities, as well as the demerits, of an ani- mal, being careful from a physical point of view of a given individual ; for while one should always consider blood and nothing tl can be done without blood it is equally clear tl that conformation is of vital importance, as t one cannot expect to have true conformation c produced unless it be true conformation that o of produces it. They said in the old days "blood is blood, but form is superiority." Form is born and t maintained by health. The elements of o success are faultless blood lines, male and t female ; faultless conformation, if possible, c and then health, not only health at a given c moment on the day of a race, or for the s four or five months before a race, but health a from the date of foaling. Health includes f soundness of digestion and soundness of the r. nervous system, as well as soundness of C bone. It is the horse which never goes wrong from the start to finish that makes r the successful campaigner. When one real- c izes that there is but a fifth of a second j between a stake horse and a selling plater, l that on the same day a selling race may be run in faster time than a stake race, it shows t how keen the battle is, and at the moment i of that battle, whether it be in the first i furlong or in the last furlong, a horse needs j everything imaginable, blood, conformation and the greatest health possible. ADVANTAGES OF MARYLAND. Now, this is where, to my mind, Maryland i has an advantage; it has a soft and friendly climate ; it has rolling hills ; it has pure I water, and a sweet soil and while in some counties there may be a lack of limestone there is a friendliness to the climate and a , health-giving quality which means that be-,n ings live well and live long. The winters : are not long ; they are not severe ; they are i cold and invigorating, but the air is soft. The nervous structure of an animal is not : worn out. While some might say that there : is a lack of bone making qualities, such is ; not the case if the young stock is properly fed and cared for ; an.d in our personal ex-rs perience so far Maryland has turned out : I horses which have been sound and have re-1V mained sound they are not overbony and it is these advantages which have meant suc-Jr cess from the earliest days of the breeding ; industry. One hundred and seventy years after Se- - lima was imported to Maryland, a chestnut t filly was foaled on the same farm to which 1 she came. The filly traced back to a mare by Bcllair. This filly was raised on Maryland grass, dripking Maryland water, and breathing the soft Maryland air until she went to training barn. She journeyed this year to Kentucky and won its premier nlly stake tlle Kentucky Oaks, and not only did that, but won it in a new track record for Churchill Downs, a mile and an eighth 1:50. That was Nancy Lee. Who, then, can say that the best cannot be raised in Maryland today, as they were one hundred and seventy years ago? In breeding, while one wishes to establish families and maintain and improve a line of matrons, one should, however, always keep in mind the oncoming successful lines. For instance, there was an interesting lilly sold in England in the October sales. She was by Santair, the dam by War Grave, and the granddam by Trenton. Santair has done nothing; War Grave has done nothing; Tren-, ton was a great stayer. But this filly com-iaI" bines the lines of three great staying horses: Santoi through Santair; Carbine through War Grave and Trenton. And this is such an interesting situation from a breeders point of view that I could not resist making a bid on the filly in order to bring her to Maryland and breed her to our high I speed horses. 1 J To Be Continued.
