BRUCE LOWE'S FIGURE SYSTEM EXPLAINED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 33

BRUCE LOWE'S FIGURE SYSTEM EXPLAINED.

BREEDING THOROUGHBR.ED URGING STOCK.

(By the Australian Sporting Scribe "Warrior.")

No. VI.

Last week I wcuud up my fifth article with "The Oldiield Mare," the last of the Five Great Siro Families (No. lit). Headers of Mr Bruce Lowe's scientific work, especially breeders of bloodstock, will agree with me, that it wa9 a pity the author and his friend, Mr Frank Reynolds, when compiling the tap roots of the Figure Syatem didn't see their way to accepting those famous stallions Camel and The Baron (who belong to the 24 line) as members of the Siie Families. These two names stand out prominently in pedigree table, otherwise we would not have had a Touchstone or Stockwell. Under the heading of Helmsley Turk Mare -dam of Rockwood Maie— Mr Lowe argues :—

" Yet tfome of the males of the family," speaking of the No. 24 line, " have been such excellent sires that it almost iltferves the rank of a sire line, aud, indeed, at, one time Mr Reynolds and I took it to be a branch of No. 8 Both lines in ' StonehengeV tabulated pedigrees and also in Vol. 1 of Stud Book ended in ' Daughter of Bustler,' aiul for <«,ine veara we coiibiiiered that the mares were itJen' '<:<»*. I lean to that opinion still, seeing thai the origins/ mares were almost contemporary and hied in the same locality apparently. If the Lowther tecords are conect (page 15, revised Vol. 1 Stui! Book) the change from Daughter of. Bustler to Daughter of Helmsley Tiuk was not vt-jy great, because Dustier was a sou of the 11. Tmk. The Hoekwood Mars was the dam of Old Lady, owndl by the Duke of Briton, and, if wr turn to the t;\> rout cf tne 8 family, Daughter of Bustler, auci run het f« ni^le ptoi'uvs five penerations we find a nxi^c (1 y T'oxcub) bred to li\y Bolton. Also, if we wit) to Vol. 1, page 33, we lind a Bay Bolton mar- 1 , Oiviied by the Duke of Bolton, going backto a Daughter of Bustler, ami the pi conniption is admissible that the tap loots of all three families a>e identical. Anyhow the sous of the 24 line have, in two cases— Camel ancl The Baron— oruupil imperishable fame as the sires respectively of Tuu«:hsfcote and Stockwell." The author says very little in favour of tho next family ou the list of allotment of figuresNo. 15. £v Australia" we fcwe the Dvubam

Court Stud Sire Autonomy, by Chester frona Aveline (15), representing this line. This horsa faced the starter 22 times as a two and three yea* old, scoring 11 victories. So far Autonomy aa sired Patriot and Vftlenoe, both winners. Then, again, the line can boast of those turf celebrities, Paris II (a brace of Caulfield Cups) and Bungebah; besides Malta, Valiant, Huret, and Phiflip.

i No. 15.— Dam of Old Wiiynot. '■ "It is very evident that the members of this family do not come early, or else are not partial , to short courses, for I cannot find a winner of either IQOOgs or 2000gs, and this is corroborated by the fact that its Leger winners are not ; out of proportion to its Oaks and Derby. This j paucity of good females would indicate its gradual j extinction, and such appears to be the case, though it has come again with a spurt in the shape of Foxball and Harvester. As a sire family it has always been a phenomenal failure." T might add to Mr Lowe's Foxhall and Harvester the names of Tearaway, Hornsea, Lq Grand, Bacchus, Sealskin, and Skylark. No. 16.— Sister, to Stripling, by Hutton's Spot. " Two Derbys, two Oak=, and one Leger through the following hqises aie all that this line has beea aWe to accomplish so far— Bonny Jean (Oaks) Ormonde (Derby antf L'Abbcsse de Jouarre Leger) (Oaks) St. Gatien (Derby) F.ivewell (lOOOgs). Up to the time SK Gatien (1834) ran a dead heat for the Derby with Harvester, tho line hail been absolutely silent as jegards classic winners, though mat>y mcehorses (and sires) came from its ranks— notably, r i ibthoipe, Brown Bread, &c. 1 ihe lino is better known to the bieeder and sporting world as 'the Agnes family.'" _ "The gradual building-up of the Agnes family is one of the mo&t interesting problems in tha annals of (needing, because it demonstrates clearly that if so much could be accomplished by what must have been, to a large extent, accidental selection, what untold probabilities lie in the paths of youag breeders iv the future if they will only study earnestly by the lamplight of experience." It will, perhaps, not be out oi place to show again how useful the figures are a3 a guide or key to determine the value of any given combination of blood. " Warrior " cannot do better than give lus readers a couple of illustrations : Sire and dam of