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Quel Veinard to Provide New Trotting Outcross French-Bred Stallion is First to Be Imported for Breeding Purposes CARMEL, Ind. — Purchase this week of the French trotting stallion Quel Veinard by Leo C. McNamara, owner of The Two Gaits Breeding Farm here, marks the first time in harness racing history that a stallion has been imported to this country for the specific purpose of breeding trotting race horses. Quel Veinard, an established stallion at the age of 14, was purchased for an undisclosed sum from Gabriel Moreau of Paris arfd will be shipped by air to this country in June after he completes his present stud season in France. The European trotter is almost a pure French-bred horse and as such is being counted on to provide a new trotting out-cross for American mares. Quel Veinard carries one far removed cross to American breeding and one to the Russian Orloff breed. For more than a century — ever since the Orange County, N. Y., stallion Hamble-tonian founded the family which today dominates the American breeding scene — trotting horses in this country have been purely American stock. Almost every harness horse racing today stems directly from Hambletonian in the male line and most of them carry numerous pedigree crosses to him. It was with a view toward diffusing this blood with that of the French line that Mr. McNamara — whose breeding farm is one of the best known in the country — opened negotiations in January for the purchase of Quel Veinard. Actually, Quel Veinard can claim a distant relationship to the Hambletonian family at the tap root source. The Norfolk Phenomenon, one of the most vital links in the French pedigree chain, stems from the same English family as Imported Bellfounder, the Norfolk trotter that sired the dam of Hambletonian. Aside from that weak relationship and the lone, iar-removed crosses to the American stallion Kentucky and the Orloff breed, Quel Veinard is a purely French horse and a highly successful sire. Quel Veinard has been in stud service for only a few -years, his oldest foals being five-year-oldSi From French racing summaries available through the completion of the 1950 season, Quel Veinard had sired 17 winners from that group. That number represents better than 60 per cent of his foals of racing age. Although 1951 summaries have not yet been compiled by French authorities, indications are that when they become available Quel Veinard will have surpassed the 21-year-old Janus as the leading sire of French winners. One of Quel Veinards best foals is Elope, a four-year-old, who was the champion French three-year-old last year both to saddle and harness. Last month Elope was honored by the French government as the race horse with the best conformation, bone, individually, etc., in France. Despite the fact that his stallion fee was double that of any other in France, Quel Veinards book was oversubscribed by 23 requests this year. The French government refused to allow him to be exported until he had completed the 1952 stud season in that country. He will be bred to 50 French mares this year. Present plans call for Quel Veinard to be bred to 50 or more American mares next spring, with his first foals from those mat-ings being offered for sale at auction in the faH- of 1955.
