32 The American Thoroughbred 



Crosses of- 



Godol- 

 Darley Byerly phin 

 Stallions' Names ' Sires Arabian Turk Arabian 



Eclipse 1764 Marske 1750 102 



Herod 1758 Tartar 1743 2 i o 



Matchem 1748 Cade 1734 o i I 



Sir Peter 1784 Highflyer 1774 441 



Buzzard 1787 Woodpecker 1773 573 



Selim 1802 Buzzard 1787 6 12 9 



Irish Escape 1802 Commodore 1787 1496 



Whisky 1789 Saltram 1780 324 



Gohanna 1790 Mercury 1778 434 



Waxy 1790 Pot-8-os 1773 662 



Orville 1799 Beningbrough 1771 986 



Whalebone 1807 Waxy 1790 4 n _ 5 



Tramp 1810 Dick Andrews 1797 n 10 16 



Blacklock 1814 Whitelock 1803 12 10 15 



Touchstone 1831 Camel 1822 16 23 24 



Birdcatcher 1833 Sir Hercules 1826 19 19 27 



Harkaway 1834 Economist 1825 17 21 46 



Newminister 1848 Touchstone 1831 22 31 34 



Stockwell 1849 The Baron 1842 38 44 37 



Weatherbit 1842 Sheet Anchor 1832 25 31 41 



Sweetmeat 1842 Gladiator 1833 3 2 3 2 31 



It is customary for some writers to claim a preponderance of the Godolphin's 

 blood as a prerequisite for a great stallion. So far as bone and substance are coi>- 

 cerned, they are right, but if the Godolphin's is the best blood, why has it now be- 

 come the rarest, for it is now extinct save through Melbourne who was no part 

 of any such race-horse as was Doctor Syntax who won the Preston Gold Cup four 

 times and was second for it on another occasion ? And if the Godolphin's blood is 

 the best of all, why was, Harkaway, who was the strongest inbred to the Godolphin 

 01 any of the twenty-one stallions above given, such an ignominious failure at the 

 stud? He was certainly 10 pounds better than Lanercost and 15 better than Mel- 

 boinne, and probably 15 pounds better than Charles XII. (whom he never met) and 

 yet, if ever he got a horse that ranked above the selling plate class, I never heard of 

 it. Melbourne was worth a ten-acre lot full of Harkaways, so far as breeding was 

 concerned. Harkaway had nine more crosses of the Godolphin than had Melbourne, 

 who saved the male line of the Godolphin from total extinction. If Godolphin blood 

 was the sine qua non, Harkaway should have outbred The Baron, Touchstone and 

 Birdcatcher very easily. As it is,, his male line is very weak everywhere, there being 

 no first-class stallion anywhere in the world from his line unless Dick Welles and his 

 brother, Ort Welles, now both in training, turn out to be such. 



"The survival of the fittest" is the proper term to apply to the unquestioned pre- 

 eminence of the'Darley Arabian's male line. Doctrinaires will overhaul the pedi- 

 gree of Eclipse to show that he had more Godolphin than Darley blood, which is 

 strictly true. But how is it that the Byerly Turk's male line has gotten not a single 

 Derby winner since Sir Bevys won it in 1879; nor a St. Leger winner since Ossian 

 defeated St. Blaise and a dozen others in 1883? And how is it that Sir Visto, by Bar- 

 caldine out of Vista by Macaroni, was the first horse (in 1895) from the Godolphin's 

 line to win a Derby since Blink Bonny carried it off in 1857, a lapse of 38 years ; and 

 that Sir Visto and Kilwarlin were the only two Godolphin horses to win a St. Leger 

 since West Australian went into the "triple crown" business, in 1853? Other races 

 in England show a great proportion of victories for the Herod and Matchem lines, 



