80 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 



87. Origin. In common with all breeds of light horses, 

 the American Standardbred horse (the writer uses the 

 word " breed " advisedly, for he will show that our horses 

 officially known under this name are as much entitled to 

 it as any other) traces back through the Thoroughbred to 

 the Arab. The Arab is the original source of the Thorough- 

 bred, and nearly every breed of light horses worthy of note 

 has drawn so largely on these two that it makes the 

 Darley Arabian, the Byerly Turk and the Godolphin 

 Barb the triune root of all of them. [See the articles 

 on the Thoroughbred, the Arab, and the Barb and the 

 Turk.] 



Previous to the advent of these Eastern importations, 

 racing had not attracted much public patronage in Great 

 Britain. A writer l refers to the time of their advent as 

 follows : Byerly Turk, about 1689 ; Darley Arabian, early 

 in the eighteenth century ; Godolphin Arabian (probably 

 a Barb), 1728. Trotting matches seem then to have been 

 unknown, but it was about that time that marked the era 

 of running races. In 1751, Reginald Heber published the 

 first number of the Racing Calendar, and the light-horse 

 breeding interests of Great Britain began to assume 

 noticeable proportions. 



The Darley Arabian sired the first great Thoroughbred 

 or running horse in Flying Childers. While Flying 

 Childers was a stout race horse, yet it was through his 

 brother, Bartlett's Childers, progenitor of Eclipse, that 

 the most turf performers trace. Flying Childers sired 

 Blaze, foaled in 1733, whose pedigree is given very com- 

 pletely by Captain Urton (Newmarket and Arabia). 

 This pedigree shows that Blaze was deeply bred in Orien- 

 tal blood lines, and yet from him it seems a little stream 



1 Light Horses: Breeds and Management. 



