The Modern British Thoroughbred _/7 



The general decadence of King Tom's male-line, for it is much stronger here 

 than in Europe or Australia ; and it is none too strong here, must be ascribed solely 

 to the lack of sire blood in Harkaway; and yet, Harkaway and Melbourne, both foaled 

 in 1834, had more crosses of the Godolphin Arabian than any other two stallions of 

 their day and generation. We all know that Melbourne was a great sire and made 

 the most vigorous outcross for the Touchstone mares of any stallion in all Europe 

 until the great Stockwell appeared on the scene. Within the past two years another 

 male-line descendent of King Tom has appeared in America and has gotten several 

 good performers, after having been sold for the meager price of $45. His name is 

 Free Knight and he is by Ten Broeck out of Belle Knight (dam of the great Freeland) 

 by Knighthood, a son of the Knight of St. George who won the St. Leger of 1854 a t 

 odds of 12 to i. Free Knight is the sire of Elwood who won the Kentucky and Latonia 

 Derbys of the past season, together with several good horses in the selling plater 

 class. 



The Herod horses from 1830 to 1870, were of very light timber in a general way. 

 Ion, a good and consistent horse, for he ran second in both the St. Leger and the 

 Derby of 1838, got Wild Dayrell, the Derby winner of 1835 and, by long odds the 

 handsomest horse of that era. Ion was barely out of the third class as a sire in his 

 day, but right now, he is to be found in the pedigrees of many first-dlass horses, 

 through St. Simon and Hermit, as well as through Buccaneer, a first-class sire ; Dan 

 Godfrey, a good son of the exiled Musket ; Favo, a good performer and equally good 

 sire ; Herald, winner of the Steward's Cup at Goodwood and eight other races ; and 

 Ocean Wave, Middlethorpe, Pepper and Salt, Petronel, Philamnon, Pirate Chief, 

 Timothy, Torpedo, Tristan, and the flying filly Shotover, the third filly, in one 

 hundred and two years, to win the'Derby. Wild Dayrell got but one sire of any real 

 merit Buccaneer sire of that great racehorse Kisber, who won the Derby and 

 Grand Prix of 1876; Formosa, the wonderful filly of 1868, who won the Oaks, One 

 Thousand Guineas, St. Leger, also dead-heating Moslem for the Two Thousand 

 and last but far from least, that good filly Brigantine who won the Oaks and Ascot 

 Cup of 1869, beating both Blue Gown and Formosa, the Derby and Oaks winner of 

 the previous year. Outside of Kisber, who is dealt with at greater length in the 

 Austro-Hungarian part of this work, Buccaneer got no very remarkable sires. Wild 

 Oats, by Wild Dayrell, got some fairly good horses in England and his son Gozo got 

 two winners of the great Melbourne Cup in Australia. 



PYKRHUS THE FIRST, by Epirus out of Fortress by Defence, won the Derby of 

 1846 and ran third in the St. Leger to Sir Tatton Sykes. He is hardly recognized as a 

 great sire in England, yet he got one of the greatest three-year-old fillies in history. 

 She was called Virago and was out of Virginia by Rowton, from Pucelle by Muley, 

 from the Oaks winner Medora who was also the grand dam of Ion. Virago won 

 the One Thousand Guineas but went amiss and was "scratched" for the Oaks. But 

 for this she made amends by winning the City and Suburban and the Great Metropolitan 

 at Epsom, less than two hours apart, after which she went to Goodwood where she 

 won the cup with 101 pounds, Valeria, of her own age, being third with 79. Thence 

 she went to Doncaster where she annexed the cup with 102 pounds, beating the great 

 Kingston who carried 131, it being at weight-for-age. Pyrrhus the First got also 

 a horse called Panmure who raced in Ireland and was sold to go to China. The ship 

 was commanded by a Captain Snowden and the horse's name was changed to Snowden. 

 Two -"-ears later he was shipped to Australia where he got Suwarrow, winner of the 

 Victoria Derby and Canterbury Plate. He also got a very good sire calkd Swiveller 

 out of a Yattendon mare and Swiveller's get were great horses in long distances. 

 Epirus, the sire of Pyrrhus the First, was premier sire of England in 1850, being 

 just /43 in advance of Voltaire who got Voltigeur, the Derby and St. Leger winner 



