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SIRES b DAMS By Nelson Dunstan Peculiar Breeding Fallacies Hyperions Four White Feet Mahmoud Very Gray, Very Good That Jersey Act Once Again NEW YORK, N. Y., June 24. Have you stopped to think what a kicking around some of the breeding superstitions, which have been handed down from generation to generation, have received this year? Some breeders will avoid a small stallion; others will have nothing to do with a horse who has four white feet and still others will shy away from any colt or filly by a gray sire. In this year of 1944, we all wonder about these breeuii.g experts of old who solemnly warned us against horses which come under these three categories. As everyone knows, Pensive won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, and then ran second to Bounding Home in the Belmont Stakes, all of which tends to make ridiculous the charges against small horses and also those with four white legs. Get a look some time at a picture of Hyperion, the sire of Pensive, and you will notice that he is not only a small horse, but also one whose most prominent feature is his four white legs. But, if you continue to look at him, you will notice that like Blenheim H. and Bahram he is a horse whose many points qualify his reviewer to say "A horse of exceptional quality." Lord Derby made a classic remark when he said "Hyperion will never leave these shores even if England is reduced to ashes." Take a look at Hyperions record as a stallion and you will quickly see why Lord Derby turned a deaf ear to any offer of American breeders. We. have always thought the superstition against gray horses is one of the silliest of all. Compare the number of gray horses with the chestnuts, bays, or browns and the total is exceptionally small. But along came a horse like Mahmoud and lie has put an entirely different complexion on this business of gray " horses. Mahmoud is a gray horse by Blenheim II., out of Mali Mahal, by Gainsborough; second dam, Mumtaz Mahal, by The Tetrarch, and the third dam, that good Lady Josephine. The blood of Blandford, the sire of Blenheim II. could find nothing finer to blend with than a daughter of Gainsborough and a mare by that "spotted wonder," The Tetrarch. The result was a Mahmoud, a Derby winner, who was brought to this country with every credential but. that one drawback he was gray. One day last fall, while in Kentucky, we went out to the Whitney Farm to see Mahmoud and, while we always had great admiration for the conformation of the deceased Gino, we voted then and there that Mahmoud was the best looking gray horse we had ever laid our eyes on. Mahmouds first crop are two-year-olds this year. There were 19 in all and to the middle of this fast waning month of June, no less than seven of them have been winners for among the six were Jeep and Alabama, two who reflect either the speed of the Blandford clan or, taking it from the female side, the speed of The Tetrarchs. The point we want to make, however, is the superstitions which often arise and continue to hold sway despite the reverse proof which is often brought to us year after year. Another one which has been knocked into a cocked hat of late years is that of avoiding the first foal of a mare. Platter was a first foal and we could name Cavalcade, Equipoise and ever so many others who turned out to be champions of their time. So, whenever anyone speaks of first foals, we always wonder what the breeding set-up of recent years would have been had we not had that Chocolate Soldier who, though he sired but a few crops, was like Domino in the number of fine sons and daughters he has sent to the races. Without meaning to do so, we have given an English twist to this column. We did the same thing on Saturday when we brought out the fact that Lord Adare had reserved three services to Bahram and Lt. Keith Freeman, of the British Army had reserved a service to both Bahram and Bull Dog for the. season of 1945. Obviously, English breeders are going to patronize our stallions who are eligible for the General Stud Book, but the bigger and broader relations between England and the United States after the war centers on the Jersey Act, an act which places the vast majority of American horses as half-breds in the eyes of the English. We may be duty bound to help them, but, as good business men we should look further into the question of whether or not our horses who can hold their own with those from any country should not be fully recognized as thoroughbreds. We understand the Thoroughbred Club of America intends to make an issue of this act. Whether they will be successful, we rather doubt, for the English breeders have shown themselves to be exceptionally good business men when it comes to cornering the horse markets of the world. Our breeders should also be good business men and the time to start is when this war is over and England comes to us for the aid she will undoubtedly need,
