'The American Thoroughbred qj 



Billet was another instrument of triumph in this country with comparatively no 

 success in the land of his birth ; and a dozen of similar oases might be cited, of less 

 note, however. The truth is that we have so many good matrons in this country that 

 do not trace to any one of the forty-four mares named in Mr. Bruce Lowe's system 

 of "Breeding by Figures" that it is comparatively useless in America, save where the 

 sire and the dam, or granddam have been imported from England. In the mother 

 country it is all right enough and the figures come out correctly in seven cases out of 

 every ten. , 



Take the cases of Picayune, Minerva Anderson, Vesper Light, Brown Kitty and 

 Hennie Farrow, and their pedigrees are very short but there is no doubt but there 

 was good blood in them a long way back. Yet we all know that Doubloon, Duke of 

 Magenta, Vandalite, Rupee, and Mollie McCarthy (a winner from one mile up to four) 

 came from comparatively obscure lineage in the first place. That is why I say that 

 the Bruce Lowe system is good enough in England and France, but untenable in 

 America, an opinion in which I find the concurrence of Mr. William Allison, the 

 foremost authority on breeding in Great Britain. The "mare" from the stud of 

 Harrison of Brandon, Va.," must have been good, or we would not have such sires 

 as Kinglike and Joe Hooker tracing back to her. Duke of Magenta was beaten but 

 once and that by a horse (Spartan) that never beat anything else with any just 

 pretensions to class. Frogtown, 3 miles in 5 :29*4 ', Barnum, the great cup horse of 

 twenty years ago ; Spendthrift, Wildidle and Miser, all good sires and the first-named 

 deservedly great ; Socks, who defeated Planet at Charleston ; Fashion, who won four- 

 mile heats at thirteen years old ; Hanover, who headed the list of sires for four 

 seasons ; Thunder, Lightning and Lancaster, all distinguished winners in their day ; 

 Norfolk, Volante and Hermis, all top-notchers in their respective eras ; Bill Dearing 

 and Jonce Hooper, both good stake winners ; Captain Moore, best three-year-old of 

 1863 ; Wagner, Star Davis and Rainbow, all great descendants of Maria West ; and 

 Mingo, the best four-mile horse of 1835, all these came from mares that do not 

 trace to mares in the Bruce Lowe system. Hence, I say that system is something like, 

 a time test in galloping races, a good thing to have as a corroboration, but far from 

 indispensible, as far as concerns American breeding. Even in Australian breeding the 

 Bruce Lowe system is far from infallible, as Stromboli, winner of the Sydney Cup 

 and afterwards imported into California ; and Bravo, winner of the Melbourne Cup 

 of 1889, in which the great Carbine was second, both trace to Arabian stallions at the 

 sixth generation and to mares having no history whatever. Hence I am hardly* 

 to be censured for saying that American breeding is, to a considerable extent, a 

 lottery. Look at the great performers that have sold as yearlings for less than 

 $1,000; and at the high-priced yearlings that have not since won enough to pay for 

 their straw bedding; and in the history of those horses and their performances you 

 find a sufficient corroboration of what I say. 



Lexington and Vandal, the two greatest native sires between 1860 and 1875, were 

 differently bred from the horses just above named, tracing, as thy did, to the imported 

 mare Diamond (of the No. 12 family) by the Cullen Arabian, this also being the 

 family of Weatherbit, Sterling and Oxford in England; and of the imported stallions 

 Galore and Maxim in America. The old Montague mare was the tap-root of that 

 family. Another great American horse of that family, who should have been sent 

 back here at the close of his racing career, was Umpire, by Lecompte (Boston-Reel) 

 out of Alice Carneal by imported Sarpedon. He won 18 good races in England and 

 was beaten only a head in the City and Suburban of 1862 by Adventurer, to whom 

 he was conceding thirty pounds. But Mr. Ten Broeck sold Umpire to the Russians 

 and thenceforth he was lost to history. Vandal, for years in comparative obscurity 

 and wholly overshadowed by his neighbor, Lexington, was finally rescued and sent to 

 Belle Meade, where he died and was given the funeral of a hero. Vandal goes down 



