Plucky Liege: Great Mother of Sires, Daily Racing Form, 1944-04-08

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I PLUCKY LIEGE Great Mother of Sires I By Salvator J i Among the interesting items of breeding* information that the American Racing Manual for 1944 contains is one to which special attention should be directed. It embraces three counts, as follows: 1. — The leading money-winning sire" of the past season of 1943 was the stallion Bull Dog. II. — The leading broodmare sire of 1943 was the stallion Sir Gallahad III. III. — The leading sire of two-year-old winners of 1943 was the stallion Bel Aethel. And— All three of these stallions are out of one and the same mare. To wit: Plucky Liege was a bay mare foaled in 1912, bred in England by Lord JMichelham and sold to France as a three-year-old in 1915. The first World War of this country, that of 1914-18, breaking out just about that time, Plucky Liege did not produce her first foal until 1919. She died in 1938, aged twenty-six, at the stud of her then owner, Leon Volterra, having passed her entire career as a matron in France. Her owner through 1919-1933 was that other French breeder, Jefferson Davis Cohn, well-known in America. For him she produced eleven foals during that period. For Mons. Volterra she produced but one foal that lived, giving her a total of twelve, while one other her last died at birth. Produce of Plucky Liege The following is the complete list of the produce of Plucky Liege as transcribed from the French stud books : 1918— Barren to Teddy. 1919 — Marguerite de Valois, bay filly, by Teddy. 1920— *Sir Gallahad III., bay colt, by Teddy. 1921— Noor Jahan, bay filly, by Teddy. 1922 — Chivalry, bay colt, by Good Luck. 1923— Barren to Teddy. 1924— Noble Lady, brown filly, by Teddy. 1925— Slipped to Teddy. 1926Elsa de Brabant, brown filly, by Teddy. I ! 1927— * Bull Dog, brown colt, by Teddy. 1928 — *Quatre Bras II., bay colt by Teddy. I 1929 — * Diane de Poitiers, brown filly, by Aethelstan. . 1930— Barren to Teddy. j 1931 — Admiral Drake, brown colt, by Craig an Eran. 1932— Barren to Teddy. | 1933— *Bel Aethel, brown colt, by Aethel-4 stan. * i 1934 — Barren to Aethelstan. I 1935 — Bois Roussel, brown colt by Vatout. 1936 — Barren to Casterari. ! 1937 — Dead foal, by Casterari. 1938— Mare died. * Imported to United States. 1 Of these foals, Bois Roussel 1935 won the English Derby and Admiral Drake I I 1931 the Grand Prix de Paris, respect- j ively the most classical of the various classic i events of those two countries. Sir Gallahad j j III. won the French Two Thousand Guineas, ! another classic. Bull Dog won the Prix1 ! Daphnis and Bel Aethel the Prix Daru, 1 I ! I . j | i I ! 1 I I j i j j ! ! 1 ►which may be accounted among the semi-classic French fixed events. Marguerite de Valois, Noor Jahan, Chivalry, Noble Lady, Elsa de Brabant and Diane de Poitiers were all winners. Quatre Bras II. was a winner of minor stakes in both France and the United States. Thus, of the twelve foals of Plucky Liege that lived, every one was a winner, three were classic winners, and two others stake winners. Sons Prove Champion Sires This alone would stamp her a most remarkable matron. But her true glory is her sons record as sires. While several of her daughters have produced well, none of them bids fair to come anywhere near her achievements in that respect. But as a dam of sires she may be said to stand alone among the broodmares of this century, and to challenge comparison with any of previous ones. Sir Gallahad III., her oldest son, has led the American sires four times — in 1930, 1933, 1934 and 1940. He not only leads the broodmare sires for 1943, he has done so in two previous seasons. Bull Dog, as noted, is American premier for 1943, after having finished a close second to Equipoise, the leader, in 1942. Sir Gallahad III. and Bull Dog are the only two own brothers who have ever stood at the head of Americas winning sires. Their record in this relation is absolutely unique. Fame Comes Quickly to Bel Aethel Bel Aethel, the son of Plucky Liege, who led the sires of two-year-olds for 1943, is, as will be noted, not by Teddy, sire of Sir Gallahad III. and Bull Dog, but by Aethelstan. He is but 10 years old, and his two-year-old crop racing in 1943 was his first one since his importation, he having made his first season in America in 1940 with the resultant foals coming in 1941. In addition, Quatre Bras II., another of her sons by Teddy and own brother to Sir Gallahad III. and Bull Dog, was promi-j nently to the fore last season as thl sire of Eurasian, the winner of 1,615 and of; the Travers and other important stakes. -Sir Gallahad in. was the first of the| I produce of Plucky Liege to be imported. His immediate and high success led to the subsequent importation of five others of her foals — Bull Dog, Quatre Bras II., Bel Aethel. Marguerite de Valois and Diane de Poitiers. Thus we have accumulated a rich treasure of her blood to which nothing owned elsewhere can for a moment com-j pare. Plucky Liege was a daughter of Spear-! mint, the Epsom Derby winner of 1906 and a son of the mighty Australasian race horse and sire, Carbine. Her dam was Con-; certina, by the great St. Simon. Concer-; tina produced 10 winners, including six stake winners, and, among many others, was the third dam of the unbeaten "Triple Crown" winner of 1935, Bahram, now also owned in the United States of America.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1940s/drf1944040801/drf1944040801_10_4
Local Identifier: drf1944040801_10_4
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800