152 
This experiment is not given here because it gives information of value to the 
scientist, but rather as one method of investigation bearing on breeding questiona. 
It is true that the experiment in itself gave most inconclusive results, but it is not 
difficult to foresee that, had a persistent and systematic study been undertaken on 
this same line, results might have been secured that would have had a positive rather 
than a negative value. 
( toe of the most interesting and novel lines of investigation bearing on the breeding 
of animals is that of breeding race horses by the figure system, as introduced by 
the lateC. Bruce Lowe." Mr. Lowe, after many years of study of the history of the 
English race horse, including an analytical study of pedigree, came to the conclusion 
that racers descended from certain parentage were logically to be regarded as of greater 
speed inheritance and ability than those of other parentage. Forty-three different 
families of race horses are given numbers from 1 up. These families are ranked 
numerically, on the basis of a statistical study of the contestants of the three most 
prominent English races — the Derby, Oaks, and Leger. The family having the 
largest number of winners is No. 1, the next No. 2, and so on. Some of the families 
investigated have never won a race. By placing the numbers adopted by Mr. Lowe 
on a regular tabulated pedigree, the horseman can easily tell at a glance what families 
have been used in the breeding of the horse in question, and whether from high-class 
speed ancestry, as 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5; or outside one, as 10, 14, 15, is, :;3, etc. Of these 
various lines, Nos. 3, 8, 11, 12, and 14 are classed as the five great sire families, coming 
from stock very prepotent in the stud. Emphasis is laid on the fact that it does not 
follow that because an animal is rich in the running strains — 1, 2, 4, and 5 — that he 
is going to be a success at the stud. In fact, strange as it may seem, a sire from these 
families is likely to prove a failure unless mated with mares from the sire families 
3, 8, 11, 12, 14. ''AH the great sires of the world, from Eclipse to the present day, 
either descend directly from these five great families or are inbred to them, and 
horses not in these families (or inbred strongly to them) are, so to speak, powerless 
to sire winners unless the sire element is strong in their mates." 
The English races previously referred to were established in 1777, 1779, and 1780. 
When the English stud book was first compiled, many j T ears ago, it contained about 
100 mares or so-called "top roots." Of these, nearly 50 are represented in the more 
recent stud books, of which less than 20 play any prominent part in the pedigrees 
of modern horses, while only about 9 appear indispensable in the pedigree of 
any first-class race horse of the present day. These 9 classes are divided into two 
groups, running and sire, or feminine and masculine. It is contended in this study 
that the breeding of some of these families must show in the three nearest top removes, 
and in proportion to the amount of inbreeding to these choice families will be the 
measure of vitality contained in the individuals — other conditions of course being 
equal. Further, Lowe insists that every great race horse and sire of this century 
will be found to have in his three top removes one or more of the following figures, 
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 11, 12, 14. The three great lines of male descent are given as the 
Darley Arabian, the Byerly Turk, and the Godolphin Barb. 
In connection with this theory is given a statement concerning each of the families 
in question, with a list of the winners at any or all of the three great races. 
To illustrate this method of studying the speed ancestry of racing stock, the 
following pedigree is given of Salvator, who holds the world's record for speed, having 
run a mile in 1.35$. 
"Breeding Race Horses by the Figure System. Compiled by the late C. Bruce 
Lowe, 1898, pp. 262, numerous plates. 
