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increase in the number of Thoroughbreds of this colour — it 

 proclaims itself. Eclipse, the greatest of the old sires, 

 was, as before stated, a dark chestnut, with white off hind 

 leg and a white blaze. Marske, the sire of Eclipse, was a 

 brown, and of the four grandparents of Eclipse, we know 

 the colour of only one — namely, that of his. grandsire. 

 Squirt, a chestnut. Squirt traces back, through his 

 granddam, Betty Leedes, to the D'Arcy Yellow Turk, 

 who, from his descriptive name, was probably a light 

 chestnut. 



In the matter of colour pedigree, however, we need not 

 look beyond Eclipse and his grandsire. I believe it is 

 correct to say that there is not now on the Turf a horse in 

 whose pedigree the name of Eclipse does not occur with 

 greater or less frequency. " From a Stud point of view," 

 says Mr. Richardson in The English Turf, " Eclipse got 

 two great sons, Pot-8-os and King Fergus." Both of 

 these were chestnuts. From the former comes the Sir 

 Hercules (black) or Birdcatcher (chestnut) " line of 

 Eclipse." Of Birdcatcher it may be observed that though 

 his sire Sir Hercules was black, his dam Guiccioli was a 

 chestnut, by the chestnut Bob Booty, out of the chestnut 

 Flight, and that the sire of Bob Booty and of Flight was 

 a chestnut in either case. The colours of their dams are 

 not recorded- 



There are two other lines of the Eclipse family which 

 figure conspicuously in the pedigree's— that generally 

 known as the Touchstone-Newminster line, through 

 Camel, and the line of Blacklock. The Hermit (chestnut) 

 family is one of the chief representatives of the 

 Touchstone branch, and The Galopin-St. Simon family 

 represents Blacklock. There is also a third line — that 

 of Tramp (bay). 



It would seem as though the " Eclipse colour " had 



