other color and towards the end of the last century it was the pre- 

 dominant color amongst the great winners and breeders.^ 



From statistics we gather that during the last thirty years 

 (1836-1866) the colors of the winners at the Derby and St. Leger 

 were: 



Derby 7 chestnuts, 7 brown, and 16 Bays 



St. Leger .... 5 chestnuts, 7 brown, and 17 Bays 



It is further found that from the winners of the Derby, St. 

 Leger, and Oaks, between the years 1870-99, the number of greys 

 has disappeared altogether and that the number of blacks as well 

 as the browns and chestnut browns is strongly on the wane. 



"We find thus that the increase of speed is gradually render- 

 ing the English Thoroughbred a purely bay stock and as from the 

 earliest times of which we have any record the Libyan horse has 

 been not only the swiftest horse known but also of a bay color, we 

 are justified in concluding that his baj' color is as fundamental a 

 characteristic as his speed, endurance, hardiness and docility, and 

 that it is due not to artificial selection but to natural specilization. ' '" 



This reversion to the bay color of the stock bred from Oriental 

 sires is bearing out the all important fact that horses like other 

 animals and like birds will transmit their distinctive colors which 

 will remain constant from generation to generation.^" In cross 

 breeding we know that ceteris paribus the individual potency and 

 characteristics of the nobler parent of more fixed type will be 

 strongest in tlie transmission of these elements.^^ According to 

 Davenport "that parent will be prepotent whose heredity sub- 

 stance is least mixed and therefore most intensified along the line 

 of established characters.'''- The relativt; significance of this fact 

 as applied to the Thoroughbred stock where parents on the paternal 

 side were of nobler breed is self-evident. 



The original wild horse was without a doubt of a "fixed color." 

 The only existing wild horse, the Prejvalsky 's, is a bay. This con- 

 firms the views of those who maintain that bay was the original 

 color of the horse and according to Ridgeway the color of the orig- 

 inal race of light horses. Se^'eral of the greatest authorities on 



(8) Sir Walter Gilbey " Horses— Breeding to Colour-" 1907. 



(9) William Eidgeway "The Origin of the Thoroughbred Horse." 1905. 



(10) Graf George Lehndorf " Handbuch fur Pferdeziichter." 1908. 



(11) Charles Darwin "Origin of Species." 



(12) E. Davenport "Principles of Breeding." 1907. 



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