136 



The Journal of Heredity 



bination of factors necessary for speed 

 and this concentration has not lieen 

 possessed by any other horse. It may 

 be said that neither his pedigree nor his 

 record as a race horse gave promise of 

 his wonderful influence as a sire. 



THE THOROBRED 



No breed of domestic animals has 

 been bred as long and as successfully 

 as the running race horse. The one 

 method pursued in increasing speed in 

 the reice horse has been to mate extreme 

 speed with extreme speed. For many 

 generations the infallible custom has 

 been to eliminate the stallion that did 

 not show high class racing ability. 

 Fortunately there is such a large crop of 

 foals each year that only a very few of 

 the males need be kept for stud duty. 

 The race track is used as the instrument 

 of elimination. The colt that cannot 

 go out and win has no chance to be 

 transferred to the stud. To be used as 

 a sire he must show speed, intelligence 

 and gameness. No matter how fine 

 his pedigree may be or how perfect 

 his conformation he is ruthlessly cast 

 aside unless he can get his nose under 

 the wire first. 



Not quite so severe a test is required 

 of a mare, but she too must be intelli- 

 gent, game and show speed if she is 

 given the best opportunities for repro- 

 duction. 



The result of the rigid elimination 

 is a pure germ plasm. It is no exaggera- 

 tion to say that the Thorobred is homo- 

 zygous, or pure, for speed. Breeders 

 can accurately forecast the minimum 

 speed to be expected from any mating, 

 provided the foal comes to racing age 

 in a sound condition. No breeder 

 attempts to say which foal will be an 

 improvement over his ancestors but hie 

 does not hesitate to predict a substan- 

 tial record which he believes will be 

 excelled. As all Hereford cattle are 

 white in the face, so all Thorobred 

 horses are fast at the running gait. The 

 breed is certainly purebred for the 

 characters of speed. 



Something of the progress being 

 made by the American Thorobred 



can be seen from the following tabula- 

 tion of the horses of the breed who 

 hav^e made the American records for 

 one mile. 



Year Horse 



1872 Alarm 1 



1875 Searcher 1 

 1877 Ten Broeck (Against 



Time) 1 



1890 Racine 1 



1900 Voter } 1 

 Oriniar f 



1901 Brigadier 1 

 1903 Dick Wellse 1 

 1908 Center Shot 1 

 1914 Amalfi 1 

 1918 Sun Brier 1 

 1918 Roamer (Against 



Time) 1 

 1920 Man O'War (3-yr-old) 1 



1890 



Time 

 ■A2H 



:39^ 



:39H 

 :38 



■.37H 



:37k 

 :37>/5 

 ■S6H 

 :36>/o 



:34^5 



■35*4 Race 

 Record 



Salvator (Straight 



course) 1:35 Jij 



It has taken 48 years to reduce the record 6^ 

 seconds, or from 1872 to 1920. 



MAN O' WAR 



In the crop of yearlings from the 

 Nursery Stud, Lexington, Ky., sent to 

 the Saratoga sale in 1918, was a chest- 

 nut colt by Fair Play — dam Mahubah 

 by Rock Sand. The owner, Major 

 Belmont, sold all his yearlings that 

 year because of his activ^ities in the 

 great war. The chestnut colt, Man O' 

 War, was described at that time as a 

 good sized and well balanced yearling; 

 and brought the high price of 85,000.00, 

 being bought by S. D. Riddle. 



The sire of Man O' War, Fair Play, 

 was the best three-\'ear-old of his 

 season. The grand-sire, Hastings, was 

 a brilliant race horse and noted as a 

 sire. The great grand-sire. Spend 

 Thrift, was unbeaten as a two-year-old. 

 The g.g.grand sire Australian was im- 

 ported from Fngland and has left an 

 indelible impression on the American 

 Thorobred. 



The dam of Man O' War, Mahubah, 

 is by Rock Sand one of the A-ery great 

 sires of the breed. She herself won but 

 one race as a three-year-old and was 

 retired to the stud. 



No other horse in American racing 

 has ever won such a large sum $249,465, 

 as Man O'War. No two-year-old could 



