186 T'he American 'Thoroughbred 



ican-bred horse to win the English Derby ; and if I owned a daughter of Iroquois, I 

 would rather breed her to a son of Sir Dixon, say Kilmarnock, for instance, than to 

 any other stallion within my reach. Boanerges, by Spendthrift out of an imported 

 mare, should get good horses from a daughter of Springbok from a native-bred mare, 

 say by Vandal or Bonnie Scotland ; or from a daughter of Kingston, and some equally- 

 well bred native mare. And while on this subject of Kingston, let me say that he is 

 the best horse alive for daughters of imported Odd Fellow, who is as good as a 

 Matchem horse, so far as his breeding is concerned, as ever crossed the broad At- 

 lantic. Carlton Grange, bred directly away from Spendthrift on his dam's side and 

 six removes from him on his sire's side, should make an admirable mate for the 

 daughters of either Spendthrift or Kingston; and let me here remind you that a 

 horse bred in this manner would not be nearly as closely inbred as was Falsetto, a 

 great performer and one of the most successful sires of the past thirty years. 



In like manner I should advocate the mating of daughters of imported Darebin. 

 generally rangy and roomy mares, with a son of Kingston, if a compact son of that 

 horse can be found. And if a daughter of Luke Blackburn can be found that has not 

 produced well to other sires, mate her with that honest campaigner and beautifully 

 bred horse, Caughnawaga, whose dam was the best three-year-old filly in America 

 between 1885 and 1900. Again, while on this subject, breed the daughter of any horse 

 in America from the male-line of Stockwell say Esher, Salvator, Wagner or Pirate 

 of Penzance to Octagon or Don De Oro, sons of old Rayon d'Or, whose grand-dam 

 was the dam of Stockwell and his big brother Rataplan. And if I had a well-bred 

 daughter of either St. Mungo or Dalnacardoch two well-bred horses which never 

 had half a chance in this country I would rather pay $200 for a season to Octagon 

 than to take one gratis to any other stallion within ten miles of him. 



What you want to do is to run out both the stallion and the mare to the seventh 

 generation; and then, if the intermediate crosses are good (don't forget that part of 

 it) and entirely dissimilar, don't be afraid to mate your mare with that horse. Take 

 the two greatest four-mile horses of sixty-five years ago, W T agner and Boston. The 

 former was by Sir Charles, he by Sir Archy, out of a daughter of imported Citizen ; 

 and his clam, Maria West, was by Marion, who was by Sir Archy out of a daughter 

 of the self-same imported Citizen. Yet we all know that Wagner won a great many 

 big races, including the $20,000 iPost Stake at Louisville in 1839, in which he de- 

 feated Grey Eagle and threw about one-half the State of Kentucky into a condition 

 of bankruptcy. 



BOSTON, foaled one year earlier than Wagner, was closely inbred but not quite 

 so badly as Wagner. He was by Timoleon, a son of Sir Archy, whose dam was by 

 Saltram (Derby winner in 1783) and he by Eclipse, Sir Archy being by imported 

 Diomed. Boston's dam was a full sister to Tuckahoe by Ball's Florizel, son of Diomed. 

 the next dam being by imported Alderman, a male-line grandson of Eclipse. At that 

 time two crosses of Diomed meant as much as eight crosses would now, in the matter 

 of close in-breeding, as Boston was foaled in 1833 and the average generation of 

 horses is from six to seven years, which would give about ten generations if all 

 horses were by young stallions and out of young mares. And that is seldom the case. 

 But we all know that Boston was by long odds the most consistent of performers 

 for he won forty races out of forty-five, of which thirty were at heats of four miles. 

 He won five times where the heats were broken so that he had to run four heats to 

 win, therefore he ran eighty miles to win five races. What do your modern trainers 

 think of that? In addition to that he was wintered every year at Atlanta, Ga., p'er- 

 forming the entire distance between there and the old Union course on Long Island, 

 on foot ! He had the greatest antipathy to steam and never rode a miie on a railway- 

 train in his life. When he got on board a ferry boat there was always a scene in 

 which he was the chief actor; and the only journey he ever made on a steamboat, 



