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Simple Explanation of Bruce Lowe System Thoroughbreds Are Traced on Distaff Side SideReaders Readers of breeding stories frequently encounter references to the Bruce Lowe System It was devised by Bruce Lowe an English student of breeding He analyzed the pedigrees of all the winners of the English Derby Oaks and St Leger and traced them back in the female line to the earliest known ancestresses recorded in the first volume of the General Stud Book published in 1793 1793Lowe Lowe found that descenders in tailfemale of Tregonwells Natural Barb Mare won these three classics most often Next were descendents of Burtons Barb Mare and so on These families were numbered No 1 and No 2 and so forth to No 43 The family number of a horse thus indicates from which of these original mares it is descended or the maternal side never on the paternal side Consequently a horses number in breeding articles is always the same as its dams For example Ladas was by Hampton a No 10 horse but Ladas belongs to No 1 family because his dam was of the No 1 family a descendent in the female line of Tregonwells Natural Barb Mare MareBruce Bruce Lowe dubbed the first five families running families and they are distinguished by their numbers being printed in italics There is also another grouping that of the sire families in which the stallion element is supposed to be powerful The numbers in this case are printed in black type They are Nos 3 8 11 12 and 14 No 3 is both a running and a sire family Breeding experts generally are more inclined to decry than accept the Bruce Lowe System
