PLANNED INBREEDING RACING FIXTURES

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 12, 13 July 1935, Page 23

PLANNED INBREEDING

RACING FIXTURES

THE WAY TO SUPERHORSES

ARCTIC KING EXPERIMENT

■ There is a popular belief, founded of course on the canons of human ethics, that inbreeding is detrimental to any, stock, but really, while allowing the truth of this view so far as it applies to present-day so-called races of mankind, the fact is incontrovertible that the only way in which super-qual-ity stock may be produced in a short time is by accumulating the desired characteristics by inbreeding. It is by this means that purebred stock was first obtained, and it is by this means, too, aided'by selection, that the quality of pure stock is improved. The application of the principle to human eugenics is so controversial a subject, indeed is so necessarily and definitely contrary to the canons of human society, that this aspect may be best passed over with the briefest note. The fact is simply that human races, in the eugenic sense, are not pure stock, except possibly in the most remote portions of the world, and inbreeding would therefore accumulate not only good characteristics but the worst as well, and selection of the best scientifically is hardly a feasible practice in the present order of society. Yet many thousands of years ago the old Egyptian dynasties were perpetuated by the'closest of imaginable inbreeding, brother and sister marriages, and no line of kings in the known history of the world has ever had so enduring a reign as the Egyptian had, and decay did not come till outside influences began to make their first appearance. ORIGIN OF PUREBRED STOCK. It is well known that all purebred stock had its origin in selection . and inbreeding for several generations till a stable product was obtained. Among cattle-breeders today selection and inbreeding are the scientific instruments for improvement of the breed. An unwanted characteristic often requires many generations to breed out, though if breeders always knew their science better the result might be achieved in much shorter time. The knowledge th^'the science of heredity has to offer is now happily being acquired more' earnestly among the leading stock-breeders of the world, and the time may come before long when all breeders to be successful will have to supplement their craft with the proven tenets of science. The craft of horse-breeding lags behind that of some other branches of animal-breeding, mainly because it is so tied to outmoded theories, pedigrees, and fashion lines; but. this is. really strange, as for many decades it • has been seen that in almost every champion racehorse, that is, a horse definitely superior to its opponents, there is inbreeding somewhere not far back in the pedigree, and: it has time and again been shown that ■ the superquality of the particular horse is probably due to that close cross. Yet breeders of racehorses still look for the fashionable lines, whereas they might be doing better service to themselves and the future of the breed if they were to study the desirable characteristics of. their horses,- and then mate them with horses known to have the same or similar characteristics. WHAT INBREEDING CAN DO. ' During ■ the course of the present week the successes of the three-year-old Arctic. King at Trentham, who has now. carried his sequence of recent wins.to five, and who won courageously with 9.8 in the saddle on Thursday, a big weight for a horse, of his age on, a sticky track, has supplied an example of what the effect of inbreeding is when judiciously planned, as it may be assumed Mr. J. Fuller did when mating his Kilbroney mare Snowlahd with the Paladin horse Rabbi, Rabbi was from Rachel, by Kilbroney from "Rebekah, by Bezonian from Snowstell; and Snowland was by Kilbroney from Snowstell. In other words, both sire and dam of Arctic King are direct

July 20—Hawke's Bay H.C. July 24—Hangitikei H.C. July 25—Walmate D.H.C. . July 25, 27—Poverty Bay T.C. July 27—South Canterbury H.C. luly 27—Manawatu H.C - August 2 —Poverty Bay H.C. ' August 3 —Christcliurcli H.C. August 13, 15, 17—Canterbury J.C. . August 21—Pakuranga H.C. August 29—Egmout-Wanganul n.C. (at New , ■ , Plymouth) August 31—Taranaki H.C. Soptember 7—Otago H.C. September 7—Marton J.C. ' September 12, 14—Wanganul J.C. September. 21—Ashburton County K.C. September 21—Foxton K.C. September 21, 23—Avondale J.C. , September 26,-28—Geraldinc It.C. September 2S—Napier Pnrk B.C. ' September' 2S, 30 —Taumiiruuui It.C. (at I'aeroa). Oclober s—Otakl Jlaori It.C. Iv Australia. l .lyly .17—Victoria Park n.C. July .20—Moorcfleld K.C. • Jul. 20—V.A.T.C. • July. 24-rltoschill K.C. July 27—Victoria Park It.C. ■July 27—Moonee Valley K.C.• July,3l—Kensington K.C. August 3—Canterbury Park It.C. Augusts, 10—V.A.T.C. In England. : July 19—Eclipse Stakes. ! July 20—National Breeders'. Stakes. ' July 2C—Liverpool Summer Cup, July 30—Stewards' Cup. TROTTING FIXTURES. . August 10, 14, 16—N;z. Metropolitan T.C, August 31—Auckland T.C. September 7—New Brighton T.C. September 7—Auckland T.C. September-14—Wellington T.C. September 19, 21—Hawko's Bay T.C, October s—Methven T.C. October 12—New Brighton T.C. October 12 or 19—Walkato T.C. October 26, 28—Auckland T.C. November 2—Wellington T.C. November 2—Thames T.C. linear descendants, only two removes and one remove away respectively, of the same mare (Snowstell); and in the same short space the dam is and the sire is from respectively a Kilbroney mare. To anyone who does not understand the leading principles of Mendelism this woul!l appear an atrocious experiment, so to speak; but, with the knowledge that Kilbroney and Snowntell are as pure in blood as is possible in thoroughbred horses, it was just the mating that should have been planned in seeking to obtain a horse out of the ordinary. And on his record lately Arctic King is just such a horse. It is most unfortunate in a way that Arctic King has been gelded, for as' a stallion he might have done big things. The mating was repeated with Snowland last year, and the future of the next progeny will be watched with interest. As a filly the new foal might be even a better result than the old, for mares can more easily be given their chance at the stud. The danger, of course, in such close inbreeding is that undesired characteristics as well as the desired may be accumulated, and, on the Mendelian principle of the free assortment of the hereditary factors, or genes, as they are now usually called, there is a big element of chance about what happens. The mating may never again produce so good a horse as Arctic King, but the product is unlikely to strike any mean—it will be either good or bad—and if it is good it should be well worth preservation with a view to' future breeding. • Let breeders, however, beware of following out such experiments haphazardly. The odds are tremendously against any successful result unless it is clearly perceived that all steps in the pedigree close up comprise only horses of the purest blood, and that such horses also have the stamp of definitely desirable characteristics about them.