BRUCE LOWE SYSTEM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 8, 8 December 1936, Page 10

BRUCE LOWE SYSTEM.

INFLUENCE OX BREEDING. Tho Bruce Lowe figures are referred to by students of thoroughbred breeding as a ready index to the success of particular lanniies of racehorses. The late Mr C. Bruce Lowe, in the course of his researches, lound that certain lamilies of racehorses possessed a pronounced superiority over others in speed and stamina, and in the capacity of being able to transmit these powers to their oifspring. h\ assessing tho respective merits of the families, Bruce Lowe relied on the degree of success attained in the three classic races, the Derby, Oaks, and St. Leger. In this way 34 tamilies were given designations, tlio mare whoso descendants bad had the most, successes being styied No. 1. Bruce Lowe traced tho families of 50 mares, approximately tho number represented in the English Stud Book to-uay, but 16 of these, mat is, from No. 35 onwards, have never produced a winner of the classics, or, at least, had not up to the time of Bruce Louo's death in 1894. hi fact, some 20 families only play an important part in modern pedigrees and a study of the records shows that not more than half of these are indispensable in a first-class pedigree. "RUNNING" AND "SIRE" LINES.

Following the classification of the families according to performances, two salient lacts emerged. The first was that the families numbered 1,2, 3, 4 and 5 posseted, as Bruce Lowe described it, 'the highest degree of vital force," or, in other words, racing merit. The second discovery was that five families showed in a marked degree the ability to transmit merit to their offspring. The special field of distinction lay in the potency of their sire blood. The "sire" families were found to bo Xos. 3,8, 11, 12, and 14. It will bo noted that, except in the case of the No. 3 family, not one of the racing families earned suttieient distinction ar. parents to merit inclusion in she sire list. These purely racing families were doficient in the elements that constitute successful sires. That family No. 3 not only escaped the deficiencies of both types, but combined their virtues, entitling it to pride of place in the list of families. From this family came such great sires as Stockwcll, Galopin, Toxophilite, Isinglass, Musket, King Tom, The Flying Dutchman, Bay Ronald, Polymelia, Marco, and John o'Gaunt, to mention only a few. In New Zealand in the past few" years Silverado, Nassau, Colossus, Gainscourt, Lord Warden, and Gay Shield are but a few of our sires to havo done well who belong to the No. 3 family. It was Mr Bruce Lowe's declaration—(and abundant proof was supplied in substantiation bv the late Mr W. Allison who edited Bruce Lowe's "Breeding Racehorses by the Figure System")—that no horse ever did anv good at the stud that was not descended from, or strongly inbred to one of these sire lines. The originator claimed that no great horse of modern times could be quoted that did not contain in the first three removes of his pedigree some of the running and sire lines.