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Simple Explanation of Bruce Lowe System; Thoroughbreds Are Traced on Distaff Side 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. Lowe found that descendents in tail-female 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. 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 Xowe System.
