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HEaflHV JUDGES STAND By Charles Hatton Kenneys Views on Bloodstock Breeding Combs, duPont Find no Sub for Class Extensive Culling Preceded Their Rise Sales Fillies Beginners Best Chance LEXINGTON, Ky., May 27. Chatting with Charley Kenney here today, he remarked that "After all, the breeding of thoroughbreds isnt a great deal different from the breeding of other livestock. If one breeds sound and well-made horses, they run well usually. I think . that what Brownell Combs has achieved with horses, cattle and sheep will illustrate this point. Here at Coldstream a few years ago, we bought a number of Angus heifers. They hadnt much breeding and were quite ordinary. We then bought one of C. V. Whitneys well-bred yearling bulls from Ivor Balding for 00. The stock he got from these heifers marked an improvement, so much indeed that we have since turned down ,000 for the bull." There is one difference in ui horse iiuxse breeding ureecung which wnicn cannot cannot be De ignored ignored in ui horse iiuxse breeding ureecung which wnicn cannot cannot be De ignored ignored HEaflHV in safety. They are bred for speed rather than for size or type. Kenney says that the dams influence on the foal is greater than that of the sire, so that breeders begin by culling their mares. Of course this is where "the race track test" becomes a most important factor in the program, and those who set their standards highest are breeding the highest percentage of good horses. Perhaps we may learn something about bloodstock from the experience of Willie duPont and Brownell Combs. Some years ago duPont found himself dissatisfied with the results he was obtaining from a band of more than 30 mares. They were the sort that are half-sisters and granddaughters of good horses, and mostly they were bad specimens of good breeds. So he sold or gave away all but three that were genuine producers. From these three have come Fair Star, Gold Seeker, Fairy Chant, Rosemont, Ficklebush and all that crowd. Similarly we recall that Combs one day decided to reduce his stud of an indifferent lot of mares to the one filly .who suited him. She turned out to be Myrtlewood. This all seems to show that these men found that there is really no substitute for class, and it is noted that they will not breed one of their good mares inferior fillies. We shall not be surprised if Brownell Combs has a band of eight or ten mares that are 100 per cent stakes winners before many more years. The three he now has are in this category, and Miss Dogwoods two-year-old sister, Moon Flower, who will come to the races at Chicago this summer, has shown some promise. Not long ago we saw Fairy Chant at duPonts Walnut Hall in Virginia. This altogether charming bit of blood is a mare whose career as a producer will be of academic interest. She was a stakes winner at two, quite the smartest three-year-old of her year, and won two Beldames, but were afraid this all summed up to rather a busy campaign. It is less surprising that her first foal was undersized than that he became a stakes winner. Fairy Chant has a pedigree that is like an old song. She is by Chance Shot out of the good producer Star Fairy, who was out of the Pimlico Futurity winner, Fair Star. The next dam was Etoile Filante, and this mares foals also included High Quest. It is said that Etoile Filante was so named because she was foaled one evening when the sky was full of shooting stars. The name is French for falling star, you know. Etoile Filante was by Fair Play and so is Chance Shot, which is to say that Fairy Chant is inbred to that horse. Possibly this explains the fact that she is a chestnut, even though her sire and dam are bays. This amuses us because it was only the other evening that a pedigree expert assured us that inbred horses never resemble the horse to whom they are inbred. He added that inbreeding to the inbred Domino through High Cloud and High Time mares resulted in some awfully soft-boned quarter horses. But then Questionnaire is inbred to the inbred Domino, so it would seem that the success of this formula rather depends on choosing the right sort of individuals. There now is no market in really good producers. Hal Price Headley says that they simply are "not for sale," except in such circumstances as the sale of La Troienne. We do not believe that Midas himself could now assemble a stud of good mares of proven class as producers. Usually it takes many years to develop a stud and Warren Wrights time of less than two .decades must be a record on a dirt track. He began at a time when others were inclined to sell. John Hertz says that it has taken him 25 years of buying, experimenting and culling. About the only course open to the beginner now is to buy choice yearling fillies and hope to get one of those "old blue hens," as Dr. Charley Hagyard calls high-class producers. Turfiana: The young Tennessee breeder, Jimmy Tupper, had bred nothing but fillies for three seasons, when Sure Silesia foaled him an Apache colt this spring. . . . C V. Whitney may offer a draft of mares to make room for such as First Flight, Recce, Monsoon, Mother, Bright Song and the others. ... A good many of Mahmouds stakes winners are fillies, which is ideal in that it coincides with the Whitney Farm breeding program. The next step is a suitable mate for these fillies. ... A total of more than 100 thoroughbred foals are expected in Tennessee this season. ... If you care to know, Bull Dog cost 5,000, and it seemed a big price at the time.
