P r e f a c e 



My only excuse for the appearance of this volume is my firmly-rooted belief that 

 such a book is needed by the breeders of thoroughbred horses in America. When one 

 man can send into the sales ring a consignment of over three hundred yearlings and 

 sell them at auction for something in excess of an average of $800, it is time for 

 other breeders to wake up and begin to study the science of breeding as he has done. 

 Most men are willing to pay a big price for a stallion, without grumbling, but when 

 it comes to purchasing a really good mare, and the daughter of a great producing 

 matron at that, for $1500 or $2000, they button up their breeches' pockets and say "Nay" 

 to the man who has the mare to sell. It is high time for other men to follow the lead 

 of Messrs. Belmont, Haggin, Keene, Camden and such men who see the necessity of 

 excellence in both sexes. 



Just twelve years ago, Col. Sanders D. Bruce, editor of the Turf, Field and Farm, 

 issued a book entitled "The Thoroughbred Horse," which he modeled very largely upon 

 the "Breeders' Hand Book," published by Mr. Joseph Osborne in England. Both those 

 books were well written but badly edited. Mr. Bruce carried you back to the days of 

 Waxy and Sir Peter and without any other intermission, dropped you down on the back 

 of some old short-bred Kentucky mare like Picayune or Minerva Anderson, neither of 

 which should ever have found a place in the American Stud Book, save in an appendix. 

 Now, don't understand me as seeking to elevate my own work by belittling a dead 

 friend. Col. Bruce's services to his country were signal and varied. He probably 

 did as much as any other man, living or dead, to keep his native State (Kentucky) 

 from going out of the Federal Union ; and his Stud Book, which was the work of almost 

 thirty years continuously, while it has its imperfections, was so far in advance of my 

 expectations and of the expectations of others of his friends, that he deserves the high- 

 est praise for it. With his steadfast work to bring order out of chaos, the labors of his 

 successors in that field have been comparatively easy. But the editorial portion of "The 

 Thoroughbred Horse" was carelessly put together, no matter how well written ; and the 

 same is true equally of Mr. Joseph Osborne's book, for in both cases the reader has to 

 go through the whole editorial portion of the book in order to find what he wants to 

 know concerning any given horse or family of horses. 



I have endeavored to remedy that defect by a classification of the subject matter 

 involved in these pages. I devote one chapter to the "Origin of the Thoroughbred" 

 and deal chiefly with the three great lines which have survived all others the Godolphin 

 Arabian, the Darley Arabian and the Byerly Turk. If anybody wants the details of 

 importation of Oriental horses into England, up to and including the reign of good 

 Queen Anne, I must refer him to the works of Mr. Osborne and Col. Bruce, as giving 

 details more minute than I could hope to embrace in this little book. The student of 

 breeding cares nothing in this day for the fact that the Godolphin Arabian's great 



