PROGRESS IN HORSE BREEDING 



Improvement in Breeds Evidenced by the Best Horses Constantly Attaining 



Faster Speed Records 



W. S. Anderson 



University of Kentucky, Lexington 



AT LEAST two breeds of horses are 

 making progress if the accurate 

 records of their deeds are correctly 

 interpreted. Both the Standardbred 

 and the Thorobred horse are making 

 new records almost every year. Since 

 records have been kept neither breed 

 has failed to make improvement during 

 a generation. The improvement has 

 been so rapid that usually many new 

 records are made in the life time of 

 any one horse. The raring period of a 

 horse, however, does not extend over 

 five or six years. Most trotting and 

 running horses race during the two and 

 three-year-old form only. 



SPEED RECORDS OF THREE- YEAR-OLDS 



Perhaps, the progress made by 

 trotting horses can best be shown by 

 giving the records made by the three- 

 year-olds of the breed. {Continued below.) 



SOME SPEED PRODUCING FAMILIES 



It is interesting to study the families 

 from which speed improvement is 

 coming. There have been registered in 

 the American Trotting Register Asso- 

 ciation many thousands of stallions 

 who have had opportunity in the stud. 

 The vast majority add nothing to the 

 evolution of the breed. 



There were more than 1,000 three- 

 year-old horses in 1918 which might have 

 been eligible to the races of that year. 

 Of the number which did race, nineteen 

 secured records of 2 :10 or better. Six of 

 them were sired by Peter the Great 

 while five were by Axworthy's sons: 

 Dillon Axworthy siring three, Guy Ax- 

 worthy one and Gen. Watts one. This 

 does not tell all the story of the influence 

 of Peter the Great and Axworthy as five 

 of the dams of the 1918 2 :10 three-year- 



1860 Elvira Whiteside made the world's record for three-year-olds: 2:39 



1874 Lady Stout ' " " " " 2:29 



1883 Hinda Rose " " " " " " " " 2:19)2 



1889 Axtell " " " " ' 2:14 



1892 Arion ' " " ' 2:10^ 



1910 Colorado E. " " " " " 2.04?/4 



1914 Peter Volo " ' ' 2:03)2 



1917 The Real Lady " " " 2:03 



1920 Sister Bertha " " ' 2:02?4 



It will be noted that in 60 years the 

 record for three-year-olds has been 

 reduced from 2:40 to 2:02^^. When 

 Peter Volo made the unexpected race 

 record of 2:033^ in 1914 the prediction 

 was made that the limit of speed for 

 his age has been reached; but Miss 

 Bertha Dillon equaled his record in 

 1917, while the Real Lady cut one-half 

 second off the time. Three years later 

 Sister Bertha, a full sister to Miss 

 Bertha Dillon, placed the time at 

 2:02^. The ambition of the breeders 

 is to make the three-year-old record 

 2:00, and there are reasons for believing 

 they will do it. 



olds are by the two dominating sires 

 of the breed. 



During the season of 1920 thers were 

 21 three-year-olds that made records 

 of 2 :10 or better. Eleven of these were 

 by Peter the Great and his sons, three 

 by the sons of Axworthy and three by 

 The Harve.sfer. 



THE GREATEST SIRE OF ALL BREEDS 



I-'or a decade the get of Peter the 



Great have won a ver>' large propor- 

 tion of the two and three-year-old races 

 and futurities. No sire of the breed has 

 come near to him in intlucnce. Having 

 a racing record himself of only 2:07^ 



i,H 



