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FOALS REGISTRATION Total for 1923 Number 2,648, An Increase Over 1922. Breeders and Lovers of Horse Pleased Over Growth of Thoroughbred Production. NEW YORK, N. Y., Jan. 26. Breeders and lovers of the thoroughbred in general will learn with pleasure that the registration of fcais for 1923 total 2.G48, an increase of 383 over 1923 and 90S more than the extreme low ot 1913, when the breeding industry was at its bottom after the departure of thousands of stallions and brood mares for foreign shores. Those were dark days for the blood stock interests of the United States. Only the most courageous could see any trace of a silver lining in the general atmosphere of gloom following the stoppage of racing in all parts of the country. It was a dismal trio, that of 1909, 1910 and 1911. It was the gallant few who had a firm belief in the horse of blood who maintained their studs intact, and it was from these nurseries that the returns of 1913 were received. It is infinitely easier to tear down than to build up, and the process of reclamation has been slow ; slower, in fact, than it will be in the ne"xt few years, taking the fine gain of last year as a basis upon which to make a prediction. The number of importations of blood stock within the last year from England and France make for optimism ; as does also the new recruits to the breeding ranks, most of whom have taken up breeding and racing out of pure love for those most fascinating occupations, to say nothng of designating the latter as a pastime. WILL SURPASS OLD TOTAL. Registrar Andrew Hcrkcrt of the Jockey Club places the number of mares recorded in the Stud Book at present at about 4.S00. It is quite a climb to the 7,500 that were registered in 1908 in the same volume, but there is no doubt that the old figures will be surpassed and that, too, within much shorter time than the foal registration figures between 1912 and 1923 would indicate, now that the pendulum lias swung toward prosperity. In this connection students of breeding conditions will be interested in the record of foals, and the record for juveniles may be taken as a certain guide to the brood mare situation for the period between 1912 and 1923. Year. Foals Registered. 1912 2,000 3913 . 1,740 1914 1.8SG 1915 1,991 191t 1.9SO 3917 1,951 3918 . 1.9S7 3919 1,829 3920 1,801 3921 2,105 3922 2,265 1923 2.C4S Those interested in the preservation of racing are gratified at the demand from all parts of the country for thoroughbred sires both for general purpose horse improvement, and for the breeding of hunters and polo mounts. The Federal Remount Service has application for several hundred head, and the .requests come from nearly every state in the 1nion. Officers of the Service are searching the breeding farms and race courses for stallions of the types that will satisfy the demands of the various communities. The supply is nothing like the demand and many three-year-olds are being bought because older horses are not available. The realization that these horses have to be developed through the tests of the race course lias made friends for tlie turf in communities where there was little or no sentiment for the type a decade ago. The growth of hunting and polo, as well as horse shows, has stimulated interest in the thoroughbred to a degree not appreciated save by those in active touch with conditions. Polo and hunting are both in their infancy In this country. Thoroughbred horses are now found in regions once devoted almost exclusively to the standard-bred. Ohio, once given over to the trotter, has a number of thoroughbred stallions for the production of hunters, one of the most recent acquisitions being the imported horse Trcvisco, a son of Tredennis and The Test, by John o Gaunt. Michigan, another former stronghold of the trotter, is doing well for the clean-bred also, with the Grosse Pointe Hunt at Detroit taking the lead in the movement
