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British Turf Stars in Family Groups BY SALYATOR It is to be regretted that America has no i annual publication analogous to the English Bloodstock Breeders Review, of which the new volume XIL, dated December, 1923, and covering the doings of the past year, is just off the press. This review used to be a quarterly, but several years ago the management decided to transform it into an annual In some ways this was an improvement, in others not so much so. But it is certainly very convenient to have the wholo years work presented in a single volume. Year by year it grows larger and larger, the new one running to 455 pages, exclusive of the final section of unnumbered pages. This is gratifying testimony of the corresponding growth of the turf and the interest in it, particularly the "breeding angle." One of the most interesting features of this work is the section annually devoted to a series of tabulations of the pedigrees of the principal winners of the past year. There is a fascination to many lovers of the race horse in such things that is quite irresistible, and that, moreover, "grows by what it feeds on." A tabulated pedigree is nothing more nor less than "form at a glance," insofar as a horses blood lines are concerned. It resembles the charts in Daily Racing Form, in its own department, and the two together "tell the story" regarding what a thoroughbred is, what he has come from and what he has done. Add a good photo and you have all the "documents in the case" for your dossier. - Of course, this is as regards documents. There is one other item all important to wit, knowledge of the horse, as a horse, by first hand observation. This, however, cannot invariably be had and in default of it the documents will go far. EIGHTY-TWO IN NEW VOLUME. Thero are no less than eighty-two tabulated pedigrees in the new volume of the Bloodstock Breeders Review, as against but seventy in last years. Evidently the editors consider that outstanding horses in 192.1 were more numerous than in 1922 and in a Avay that was so. The percentage of two-year-olds, also, is not quite so heavy. Of the seventy tabulated pedigrees of the "stars" of 1922, thirty-six, or more than half, were two-year-olds ; of the eighty-two of 1923. only thirty-seven, or less than half. And this is as it should be. Many two-year-old "stars" prove of ephemeral importance only if that much. Their salience is greatly exaggerated because of the present tendency of commercialism to concentrate upon yearlings and two-year-olds for the sake of "quick action for your money." The two-year-old is, however, the arbiter of fashion in many respects and as such the large amount of space devoted to exploitation of the blood lines of successful ones is justified. But all this is doubtful value to the breed, as a breed this continuous stress upon the immature performer and straining after all that produces and sustains him. MATERIAL FOR DISQUISITIONS. The analysis of the eighty-two tabulations of Englands outstanding thoroughbreds of 1923 would afford material for many disquisitions by the "pedigree expert," but I make no pretensions to that estate. Time was when "expertise" of that kind was to me quite seductive and I spent unlimited time in absorbing the outpourings of the various oracles, on both sides of the water, try-, ing also to emulate them myself, in my own I small way. But that game has lost its ! appeal. I began to turn away from it when the "figure system" assumed such overblown proportions and dwarfed .everything else in the way of turf "literature." So omnipresent was the propaganda, and to such lengths did its priests, high and otherwise, carry their crusade, that it had just the opposite effect from that intended, not only with myself, but many other devotees of the thoroughbred. Then came the pur sang follow-on, to add disgust to satiety. The bald and unspeakable commercialism masquerading as high- purposed endeavor to "improve the breed of horses" and secure it from "contamination," which the whole thing simmered down to, finished it up for all time with those to whom the race horse is something beyond a "great national asset and monopoly" managed and controlled by an out-and-out lot of horse traders and pedigree "gyps." I still love to tabulate the pedigree of a winner, once in a while, and study one that somebody else has tabulated, provided the horse has interested me, first. But beyond that I am "full up," forever. The tabulations in the new Bloodstock Breeders Review, however, offer me an opportunity for pointing out something worth considering in the mass and not as an infinitude of "line points" for hair-splitting purposes. This is the present status of the male lines the successful ones of the present day in Britain. TEN DIFFERENT TRIBES. Sorting out the eighty-two tabulations for 1023 according to their top lines, we find that they represent what may be designated as ten different tribes. Reverting then to the seventy tabulations for 1922, avc find that they also represent ten different tribes. Here is a condensed table showing what these tribes are and what their contributions have been. Each tribe is listed in the order of its total number of representatives : Heps. Reps. Total Tribe. 19-12. 1923. Reps. Bend Or 25 25 CO Hampton 12 5 17 St. Simon i 10 16 Spcculnin 11 4 15 Lo Sancy 5 9 14 Sterling -. C C 12 Sprinsfield 8 3 11 Itiircaldinc 5 4 9 Musket 2 S 5 Do.Iar 2 . . 2 Wisdom 1 1 It is only when such "facts and figures" stare us in the face that we comprehend the immense ascendancy of the tribe of Bend Or j at the present time on the British turf. It claims more "stars" for a single season in either 1923 or 1922 than its nearest rival had in both ; twenty-five against seventeen. While for both seasons its total of fifty is practically three times as great as that of the one ranking second, the Hamptons. This is not less than astonishing when we recall that Bend Or, the founder of the family, was never a progenitor extensively used at the stud. The number of foals got by him was much smaller than the .totals got by numer- ous other celebrated "family-builders." More-l over, a number of the best of his male descendants were sold out of the country before the merits of his line were revealed. ABSOLUTELY DOMINANT. But despite these handicaps, so powerful is his blood that it has become absolutely dominant. A decade ago, or even at the beginning of this century, it seemed to be making but feeble headway, as compared with the tribe of St. Simon. Now what a difference ! Tho St. Simons can muster only sixteen representative horses for the past two seasons, against the fifty Bend Ors. For last season alone the St. Simons make a melancholy showing. Only six against twenty-live Bend Ors, twelve Hamptons, eleven Speculums and eight Springfields. The rising fortunes of the Hamptons, the Speculums and the Springfields are the salient feature for 1923, aside from the continued supremacy of the Bend Ors. Tho Le Sancy line which means the Roi Herode-Tetrarch tribe did not hold its own, falling off from nine members in 1922 to only five last year, though one of the latter was the sensational Mumtaz Mahal. The doings of the descendants of Bay Ronald account largely for tho rank of the Hamptons, while the Speculums lean almost wholly upon the branch through Amphion and his son Sun-dridge. The line from Springfield means the tribe of Rock Sand. That from Sterling means, with one exception, the descendants of Isonomy and this house furnished the top sire of the season, Swynford.
