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BLOOD LINES OF PHAR LAP t - end dOr, St. Simon and Isonomy Ancestors of Great Horse. r- Horsemen on West Coast Enthusiastic Over vx Symmetry- of Australian Star Re- lated to Man o War. - Australasia has long been noted for its racing. Seldom a day passes that there is not some kind of thoroughbred sport at either one of the metropolitan courses or at the "pony tracks As a background for all this activity, great nurseries for turning out the blood horse, abound. It was at one of these haras in New Zealand that Phar Lap first saw the light of day. The breeders "down under" are more Under the influence of the English than are Americans. So it is not surprising to find in the blood lines of Phar Lap the three great lines of the Motherland Ben dOr, St. Simon and Isonomy. In the United States, although of course we have quite a plenti-tude of these famous strains, it is more .likely for us to find Fair Play, Commando and Ben Brush appearing prominently in .the pedigrees of stakes winners. As in this country, quite a number of little known thoroughbreds and relatives of noted horses find their way from England to Australasia, but now and then, the blood becomes potent by a cross with native strains. Night Raid, sire of Phar Lap, did not make much of a record but, as is sometimes the case, as with the "maiden" Tre-dennis, a stallion that promises to be only a fair success turns out to be almost a world beater. Night Raid has sent not only Phar Lap but other good ones to Melbournes Flemington and Sydneys Randwick and other big plants. Horsemen here have been struck by the symmetry of Phar Lap, and no wonder, as his grand sire Radium and his great grand sire Ben dOr have always been considered as grand specimens of the thoroughbred, as far as conformation is concerned. He has the typical Ben dOr marks on his chestnut coat and in other ways, is said to bear quite a striking resemblance to the English horse. Some of the horsemen at Tanforan, on first glimpsing Phar Lap, remarked: "Why hes another Brig oDoon." Many fans recall Brig oDoon as he started several times at Tijuana and since he has been retired from racing, has been a stock horse at C. T. Boots Elmwood Farm. Brig oDoon is a great great grandson of Ben dOr, the great grand sire of Phar Lap. The gelding from New Zealand has the stoutest blood of England in his veins and also that of Carbine, the "Man o War" of the Southern Hemisphere. He gets the Carbine blood through Spearmint on the distaff side of Night Raids pedigree and also through the New Zealand mare Entreaty, which goes back to Carbine through his son Maxim. He has what the blood line students call five free generations to Carbine and six free generations to Galopin, the sire of St. Simon. Doubling up on those kind of lines has. long been fashionable in England and in Phar Laps native country. John Brown and other breeders in Australasia have been especially "strong" for the blood of Isonomy and Phar Lap is not lacking in that, either, as Entreaty comes down from the sire of Isinglass through his son Pilgrims Progress. It might be said that our own Man o War, who comes down from West Australia through imported Australian Hastings and Fair Play, is distinctly related to Phar Lap, as Carbine was by Musket and the latter stallion was from a mare by West Australian, In the days gone by in California, when the late James B. Haggin was operating Rancho del Paso, near Sacramento, "down under" blood was more familiar to race goers than at present. One of the notable importations of Haggin was the bringing here of the Matchem stallion Darebin. How much we owe to Darebin is shown eloquently in the unbeaten Whitney filly Top Flight The champion miss is from Flyatit, a daughter of Peter Pan, and Peter Pan is by none other than Commando, which was from Darebins daughter Emma C. Africander, which, similarly to Phar Lap could run "all day" was bred at Rancho del Paso and was a grand son of Darebin, through Afric Queen. We have called Carbine, which won the Melbourne Cup, with 145 pounds on his back, the Man o War of Australia, and perhaps it would not be stretching it much to e. the cognomen "Hindoo" of Australia I to Phar Lap. As racegoers recall, the American Hindoo started thirty-five times, won thirty races and was never outside the money.
