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kbhmh mmm j As Breeding Goes : By Salyator It was some five or six years ago that one. afternoon at the races an acquaintance of mine, a gentleman well-seized of this worlds ; goods, cnnrts. who who had had hepn been kbhmh goods, cnnrts. who who had had hepn been nibbling at the edges of thoroughb red race horse breeding, without having thus far really set his teeth into it, said to me during the long wait between a couple of the carded events: "Do you know, I am thinking of buying a mmm bunchof broodmares and breeding them around among the best studs in Kentucky. As you are aware, I have had one or two down there for several seasons, but they were not anything to brag about and Ive pretty near got ready to make a new start in a bit bigger way also a better one, if you want to know." "Thats very interesting," I responded. "Go to it, and may the going be good." "Youd advise me to make the plunge?" "My dear man, I never advise anybody to make any kind of a plunge. I learned better quite some time ago. But, speaking generally, if not bent upon sicking you on I am ready to give you my blessing. Primarily may I say? because you are not going at it for purely commercial reasons, but actually because you love the horses and would like to breed a good one." "Thanks! Any charge for that?" "None whatever. It was just what I happen to think." Put on Spot "Well, that being so, Im going to put you on the spot. I know that you always refuse to make specific recommendations but just generally speaking, Id like to know what kind of mares youd pick out if you were going to take a flyer in breeding yourself? You certainly cant object to saying that. Youre not telling me what I ought to do just what youd do if you were in my place. Is that a go?" "Well, seeing you put it that way, I suppose I may as well toe the mark. But remember in general terms only. Not otherwise. Therefore "If I were about embarking upon such a venture as you. have outlined, this is what I would do, also in outline: "I would pick up five or six mares by Equipoise and breed them to horses with which they were adapted to cross well. The philosophy of this proposition being that I notice there are quite a few Equipoise mares and fillies running nowadays, often in selling races, or that are owned by men who are i ; inot breeders and outside the fashionable circles, which can probably be got for what I consider very small prices. I noted the other day one out of a very well-bred dam that was priced at ,500 on the card, so just out of curiosity I went down into the paddock to take a peek at her and found she was a very neat specimen. "With a little trouble and not too much at that I think I could pick up five or six who would not cost me as much, altogether, as just one fashionably-bred one. If they were then bred to the right kind of horses and not necessarily, when I say that, do I mean the ones whose books are now filled two years ahead, but some of the many good ones that are not the last cry and that are standing at very reasonable fees, why 1 would feel as if I was on my way." Always Equipoise Fan While I was delivering this opinion, as I had expected, I saw that my friend was having mental fidgets, he wore a pre-oc-cupied air as if his thoughts were wandering far afield. And when I had finished he remarked after a brief pause: "Well, thats all very interesting very. But while I know you have always been an Equipoise fan, had it struck you that hes literally and absolutely a dead one?" That he left only a small number of foals they say something like 75 and that they are also saying he was a dead failure as a sire?" "Quite so," I replied. "Yes indeedy! " They are saying it to all and sundry, both openly and behind their hands. But what of it? They are about the limit of futility, to my thinking, as men of their class always have been. Only two or three years ago They were telling us that Man o War was through as a sire, that he would leave no family and that smart people would let his blood alone that was the approved line of Their talk until War Admiral and a few few more like War Relic jumped out and made them look like imbeciles. Kindly refer me to somebody beside They as the court of last resort. "My faith in Equipoise as a sire is by no means gasping. I think he will yet prove himself to have been a great one. And his blood will breed on for precisely the same reason. His pedigree makes him almost an ideal outcross for all the lines that at present rule the roost. He has scarcely any of the ultra-fashionable strains which right now They are whooping it up for. He has no Isonomy blood whatever. He has no St. Simon, either. He has a very thin red line to Bend Or, five generations back, and another, just as thin, to Hampton. There is no Sunstar in his ancestry; and no Roi Herode. And everything fashionable that we have now is saturated with these elements." Approved Line of Pedigree Patter "Yes," was the rejoiner, "and thats why hes not bred for a sire! His male line is a back number and his line of dams is weak; very weak, when it comes to that. It aint a sire family not even sires of dams." ."I see youve got the approved line of pedigree patter that They revel in down pat. But you asked for my views and Ive given them to you. Incidentally, it was not my supposition not for a moment that they would get to first base with you! But, you know, they were not intruded upon you and they will cost you nothing. So as the horses are now coming out for the next six-furlong sprint devised expressly for the improvement of the breed, lets forget breeding problems and watch the glorious spectacle about to be staged before the enthusiastic throng." That fall my friend took unto himself five or six mares bred in what They consider the most approved lines. All of them were with foal by horses of similar estate. He has ever since been raising crops of foals from them whose ancestries when spread forth upon the pages of one of those seductive catalogues would get a hand from They upon any one of numerous counts. But thus far none of them has made any headlines blaze or caused its tabulated genealogy to blossom forth in the turf press. But About the same time when my friend was unfolding to me the grave and potent reasons why the blood of Equipoise was just about as desirable as the smallpox, another gentleman, hailing from way down in Texas, by name, Mr. Robert Kleberg, who was also sad to relate an "Equipoise fan" bought up in Kentucky where nobody wanted her a young mare by Equipoise. This, however, was not the sum of his errors. He had also acquired a young horse by the "Chocolate Soldier" and was O most lamentable faux-pas! actually using him for a sire! . The mare is called Igual -nd from her Mr. Kleberg has secured the "Triple Crown" winner of 1946, Assault, the only race horse yet to appear that has won three 00,000 events hand-running. His total earnings being well over 00,000 and h just nicely on his way. The son of Equipoise, by name Equestrian, Mr. Kleberg mated with a young mare called Stop Watch, just retired fc tb : breeding ranks, and the result was Stymie, another winner of over 00,000. Queer, isnt it, considering what They hfi-d ta cn vl
