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j THAT AMERICAN STAIN i j By SALVATOR. . J : - - - - k On the morrow of Mahmouds victory in this years English Derby, run at Epsom on Wednesday May 27, Daily Racing Form rather conspicuously called attention to the fact that this winner of "the worlds greatest race" and a colt that in winning it had run the fastest Derby ever contested over Epsom Downs carried the "American stain." That is to say, that he runs right back to blood that has been barred from the English Stud Book because of its American and allegedly non-thoroughbred or "mongrel" character. From this distance, it looks as if that "American stain" was going to be a big factor in the biggest events of the present season in England. At the present writing the three best horses in training there, leaving out the two-year-olds, as yet mostly unknown quantities, all carry it. The trio is: Mahmoud, the Aga Khans Derby winner. Omaha, Mr. William Woodwards American colt, winner of both his starts on English courses this spring, and the favorite for the Ascolt Gold Cup. Quashed, Lord Stanleys Oaks winner 5f last season and now believed to be the lion in Omahas path at Ascot. Her last achievement was the winning of the Ormonde Stakes of 0,000, over a mile and five furlongs and previously this spring she took up 130 pounds and ran a dead heat with Jack Tar, 104 pounds, in the Great Metropolitan Stakes, over a route of two miles and a quarter1. In 1935, in her three-year-old form, Quashed not only won the Oaks one and one-half miles, but the Prince Edward Handicap two and one-quarter miles, carrying 125 pounds, and the Jockey Club Cup, also at two and one-quarter miles, in which last event she defeated with ease Mr. Woodwards noted colt Alcazar, rated one of the best stayers out. This really remarkable trio now holds the center of the stage "over there" and have demonstrated that, "stain" or no stain, the best that England possesses is no better, if as good. As far back as 1923, I contributed several articles to Daily Racing Form devoted to the sensational two-year-old filly of that season in the "tight little isle" the "spotted wonder," Mumtaz Mahal, daughter of The Tetrarch, whose granddam was Americus Girl, by the American stallion Americus Rey del Carreres or Caredes, he by Emperor of Norfolk, son of Norfolk, he by the immortal Lexington. Mumtaz Mahal, owned and raced by the Aga Khan, then created a greater furore than any other two-year-old filly seen on the English turf in many years, nor has any since seen there ranked as her equal. By conservative critics, she was considered a phenomenon. Her winnings reached nearly 0,000. She has been a good producer since going to the stud as a four-year-old and now, through her daughter, Mah Mahal, by Gainsborough, is the granddam of the winner of the fastest Derby ever run at Epsom. The granddam of Mumtaz Mahal was Americus Girl, the winner of more than 0,-000, a mare of electrical speed she ran five furlongs in :56, by Americus previously mentioned and, as related a few days ago in Daily Racing Form, a horse bred in California by "Lucky" Baldwin and taken to Ireland by "Boss" Richard Croker over thirty years ago. He did stud service there to a limited degree, was also bred to a few mares in England, I understand, but, like all American stallions attempting careers as sires in the British Isles, he was "despised and neglected," and, being relatively useless, was sold to the Continent, where he stood for a time in Belgium, was taken to Italy, and finally to Germany. In none of these countries was he afforded a real chance; nevertheless, he showed his merit in each of them, and crosses of his blood keep cropping up in the pedigrees of their stake winners. Considering this, the thought obtrudes: Had Americus remained in America, might he not have proved the horse capable of perpetuating the direct male line from Lexington? That line is now virtually extinct. There are today still a few horses running and occasionally winning by Lantados, which stallion, now dead, is supposed to have been the last male-line Lexington that did stud service in this country. He was by Cru-zados, and Cruzados, like Americus, was by Emperor of Norfolk, son of Norfolk, Lexingtons unbeaten and greatest son. Cruzados again, like Americus, was also bred by "Lucky" Baldin at his famous Santa Anita Ranch. Americus was an inbred horse, for in addition to being a grandson of Norfolk, paternally, he ran directly back, maternally, at a few removes, to the dam of Norfolk, Novice, by imported Glencoe. But while, on his bipod-lines, he should have been a stayer of stayers, by some freak of heredity he was a "speed wonder," being one of the fastest sprinters of his day. Luckily for his Irish-English-bred descendants, Americus crossed the Atlantic before the passage of the "Exclusion or Jersey Act" of 1913, and thus Lady Americus got into the English breeding ranks, and the English Stud Book, ahead of it. Otherwise there would today have been no record-breaking Derby winner Mahmoud; as, according to that celebrated document, anything tracing to Americus and his "tainted" American ancestors, particularly Lexington, is not "pur sang," but just "half-bred" or, as British turf writers of the present day are fond of calling our American race horses, "mongrels." Passing to Quashed, readers of Daily Racing Form may recall that last season when she won the Oaks Englands great classic event for three-year-old fillies and the other stakes mentioned above, I contributed to it a sketch of her, in which the fact was revealed that on her dams side she runs directly back to a mare by Empire, the uniquely-bred American horse taken to England to race some eighty years ago by Richard Ten Broeck, the first Yankee invader of the British turf. Umpire was not only from Alice Carneal, the dam of Lexington his sire was Le-comte, the only horse that ever beat Lexington in a race; while Lecomte, like Lexington, was a som of the mighty old hero Boston. In England Umpire proved an excellent race horse, winning a number of stake events. Ten Broeck sold him to the Earl of Coventry, one of the most, famous of "racing peers," who liked horses that he liked, no matter how they were bred. He used Umpire for a stallion but bred him mostly to get hunters. From a part-bred mare of the Earls, that had been a handy race mare, Umpire got the daughter to which Quashed runs directly back in tail-female. Quashed is also a "mongrel"; for in addition to the "American stain" she has other blood elements outside the General Stud Book. Nevertheless, she was the best three-year-old filly in England last season and is today considered the best mare of any age racing there and the animal that the winner of the Ascot Gold Cup will have to beat. Omaha is at present the favorite for the Cup, but Quashed is being strongly supported for it and many critics fancy her pronouncedly. As Omaha is also just a "mongrel," owing to the "tainted" blood that he gets from his American ancestors, it will be seen that the Ascot Cup, considered as certifying its winner to be the best all-aged race horse of the year, in England or the World, is in great danger of going to an animal that no orthodox British breeder would today tolerate in his stud. To save the day, the orthodox British turfmen have pinned their hopes to Flassy, Lord Derbys four-year-old, winner last season, and again this one, of some good races over routes that have tested his staying powers, though none of them so long as that of the Cup, which is two and a half miles.
