INTRODUCTION. 



THE author in compiling the tabulated pedigrees of the sires to be found in this 

 work has been induced to do so in hopes of their proving useful to those engaged in 

 breeding for the turf, or who are engaged in fostering this most popular national 

 amusement. Very many of our largest breeders seem to ignore the lessons taught 

 in the Stud Book and Racing Calender, and we commend to all the necessity of 

 observing what sources and what course of breeding have produced the best results 

 in England, which may be most properly called the home of the thoroughbred 

 horse. We have given our own views as to the best mode to successfully breed the 

 race-horse and the best mode to select a stallion and brood mare, and the -treatment of 

 the same both in the stud and on the farm. We do not expect that all will agree with 

 us, but the ideas expressed and plans suggested will do away with many of the 

 chances incident to breeding. There is much uncertainty, and always will be, 

 attending the best and most careful mode of breeding, and this opinion is strongly 

 exemplified in the frequent occurrence of one horse being of very high form and an 

 excellent race-horse, and a full brother or sister being only ordinary; yet we differ from 

 a great many in the opinion that breeding depends entirely upon chance. Acci- 

 dents and other unforeseen causes, some of them so unimportant and abstruse as to 

 escape our attention or come within our knowledge, may prevent the best bred and 

 most promising animal from arriving at its natural size and true shape, and a little 

 difference in conformation, symmetry, and constitution may make a decided difference 

 in goodness and speed. The foal may be weak and have a delicate constitution owing 

 to the dam being starved and exposed to hardships while carrying it, or it may have 

 been improperly reared. This only proves that great care and knowledge are necessary 

 in rearing horses for the turf, as well as judgment and attention in selecting mares and 

 stallions from which to breed. The chief points are pure blood, conformation, consti- 

 tution, racing lineage, and hereditary soundness. The nearer we get to true shape 

 with the other points combined, the more certainly we will arrive at excellence. We 

 often find a large horse of good shape and racing symmetry ; but where there is nne good 

 large one, there are a dozen small or medium sized ones. The greater the size, when com- 

 bined with the good qualities, the greater the excellence and his powers, for a good 

 little horse cannot cope with a great good one. Hence size with constitution, soundness, 

 and symmetry constitutes the height of perfection While we advocate and commend 

 pure blood, we are convinced that very often pedigree is the only point at which some 

 breeders look, ignoring altogether shape and action ; hence failures. The establishment 

 of reputation by a stallion depends on his having good mares, at first, for if he has 

 only bad and indifferent ones, the produce will be in low form and a disappointment, 

 and the horse condemned as a failure. To prove this, it is only necessary to cite the 



