80 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 
87. Origin. — In common with all breeds of light horses, 
the American Standardbred horse (the writer uses the 
word “ breed ” advisedly, for he will show that our horses 
officially known under this name are as much entitled to 
it as any other) traces back through the Thoroughbred to 
the Arab. The Arab is the original source of the Thorough- 
bred, and nearly every breed of light horses worthy of note 
has drawn so largely on these two that it makes the 
Darley Arabian, the Byerly Turk and the Godolphin 
Barb the triune root of all of them. [See the articles 
on the Thoroughbred, the Arab, and the Barb and the 
Turk.] 
Previous to the advent of these Eastern importations, 
racing had not attracted much public patronage in Great 
Britain. A writer! refers to the time of their advent as 
follows: Byerly Turk, about 1689; Darley Arabian, early 
in the eighteenth century ; Godolphin Arabian (probably 
a Barb), 1728. Trotting matches seem then to have been 
unknown, but it was about that time that marked the era 
of running races. In 1751, Reginald Heber published the 
first number of the Racing Calendar, and the light-horse 
breeding interests of Great Britain began to assume 
noticeable proportions. 
The Darley Arabian sired the first great Thoroughbred 
or running horse in Flying Childers. While Flying 
Childers was a stout race horse, yet it was through his 
brother, Bartlett’s Childers, progenitor of Eclipse, that 
the most turf performers trace. Flying Childers sired 
Blaze, foaled in 1733, whose pedigree is given very com- 
pletely by Captain Urton (Newmarket and Arabia). 
This pedigree shows that Blaze was deeply bred in Orien- 
tal blood lines, and yet from him it seems a little stream 
1 Light Horses: Breeds and Management. 
