THE THOROUGHBRED IN AMERICA 39 



new Anglo- Arab was a type that was reproducing 

 and kept on improving in speed and staying qual- 

 ities so long as the cardinal principle of breeding : 

 "like produces like" was adhered to with the 

 comprehensive intelligence which made the rule 

 embrace performance, conformation and blood. 

 To the narrow-minded the law "like produces 

 like," indicates that the progeny of the fastest 

 stallion and the fastest mare, when breeding for 

 speed, would be faster than either parent. It is 

 a well-known fact that mares whose fleetness and 

 gameness has been demonstrated by long careers 

 on the turf are rarely successful as dams. Of 

 course, there have been exceptions to this general 

 statement, but notwithstanding these exceptions, 

 the narrow-minded application of the rule breaks 

 down just at this point. It is likeness in blood, 

 conformation and general characteristics that the 

 rule more particularly refers to. At any rate, the 

 English had, by the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, developed a distinctive type of horse of 

 most marvelous fleetness and courage and with a 

 blood prepotency that has been so great, that after 

 a century and a half the Thoroughbred is as much 



