15 



The horse became the property of Sir George Byerly and 

 was his charger during the battle of the Boyne. When the 

 war was over Sir George took him back to England and 

 placed him at the head of his breeding establishment. This 

 is the line carefully traced : The Byerly Turk sired Jig, the 

 latter Tartar, and then followed Partner, who sired Herod. 



Selim was the sire of the Matchem line and was also 

 owned in England. These three lines are the most famous 

 the world has ever known, and all the great horses in Europe 

 and America contain these crosses. Diomed, the winner of 

 the first English Derby in 1780, had all three of the strains. 

 Sir Archie (the American Godolphin), whom I regard as 

 one of the greatest horses ever bred in America, was a son 

 of Diomed. This horse sired Florizel; Florizel is the sire of 

 the dam of Boston, and Boston sired Lexington, which shows 

 in a few words the excellence of his blood. 



However, this is a slight deviation. Old England, the 

 mother of racing, had its grand race courses, its fine breed- 

 ing establishments and its owners whose wealth justified 

 them in indulging in the sport. They were true sportsmen, 

 and there is nothing they would not have done to have im- 

 proved upon the Arabian blood, had they but known how 

 to have gone about it. But they soon had rivals in America. 



The men of the New World began to study the science 

 of breeding. They mated the Arabian stock to mares judi- 

 ciously and made up for the defects of the latter in the 

 virtues of the former. The result was that the class of the 

 stock gradually increased and became better and better. 

 Year after year saw an improvement in the American horses. 

 The best men in the country became identified with breeding 

 and they gave it the most careful attention. 



But the Americans were not content with taking the 

 best of the English sires. They invaded France and Austria, 

 and finally imported a few Arabs themselves. In every 

 instance they succeeded by their judicious management. 

 Racing in the new world grew and flourished. Tracks were 

 built at first like those in the old country, but then the 

 Americans devised a plan by which the race at all its stages 

 might be witnessed by the people and by which the horses 

 would never be out of the sight of the man who had come 

 to see the race. They built the first circular tracks and con- 

 tinued to improve upon them. 



