MR BRUCE LOWE'S FIGURE SYSTEM EXPLAINED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2323, 8 September 1898, Page 38

MR BRUCE LOWE'S FIGURE SYSTEM EXPLAINED.

BREEDING THOROTTGHBRED RACING STOCK. (By the Australian Sporting Scribe " Warrior.) No. VIII. Yes, a labour of love, true. The more one studies Bruce Lowe's figure system the less anxious is he to give up his work. This has been the case with me. Since I ventured upon the task of compiling these articles, two months back, I have ventured farther on my voyage of discovery than I bargained for. I thought by this post to have wound up my poor efforts, but in justice to the memory of Mr BrUce Lowe and his valuable work, I must keep on battling for another few weeks. To-day finishes the identification of the female lines by figuies and commences a new theory: "A Classification of the Families." Poor Mr Lowe had joined the majority ere Sunrise (No. 27) had sired Roseleaf, Bel Giorno, Sunbury, and Moss Rose, otherwise he would have put in a more cheerful word than ho did for the Spanker mare family. Again, he forgot Nightlight (uam of the Melbourne Derby and Cup winner Lantern), dam ot My Dream (winner Derby and Oaks) and Dagmar (Maribyrnong Plate). • . . : New Zealand (Auckland) claims a coming stallion in St. Hippo_, who is also a member of the 27 family, his dom Hippona being sired by Robinson Crusoe (13) from Lamorna, by Fireworks (10) from iMghtlight, by Arehy t!2) from Rushlight, by Bay Middleton (17) from Torch (27). No. 27. A Spanker Mare (Dam of Byerly Turk Mare). "One Derby and one Leger — viz., Pero Gomez (D.) and Phosphorus (L.), while i!irebrand and May Day won the One Thousand Guineas in 1822 and 1834. Enthusiast and Saunterer come also from this family, which has" not brought itself out by any' specialty, and like -all the outside lines, is wholly dependent upon the more favoured ones.'' No. 28.— Dam of Places White Turk.— Dam of Coppin iViare. "Emilius (Derby) has made this family famous, but nothing eke of note has sprung from its rarjjjs except "Wings (Oaks 1825), Imperator, Axtseon, Dalesman, &c. Emilius is the only high class sire in the line, which is evidently going to the wall, and is poorly represented in the last volume of the Stud Book." Numbers of blood stock students claim St. Albans, sir? of the Melbourne Cup winner Malua and Sheet Anchor, as belonging to the No. 23 line, and I was of the same opinion until convinced by tne arguments of "Milroy," in rhe Sydney Mail, who clearly pointed out thab St. Albans, by Blair Athol from Pandora, was a ififo. 2. No. 29. — A Natural Barb Mare (Dam of Bas&ett Arab Mare) . "One Oaks (Landscape) and two Legers (Ashton and Rowton). This family is dying out apparently. In Australia it is known as the Lady Emily family : Reprieve, Pardon, and Queen's Head (by TTattendon) brought the line into prominence a few years back." • No. 30. — Dam of Due de Chartres's Hawker. ' ' Two Derbys by Archduke and Paris, full brothers (by Sir Peter), Stamford and Delpini are the best known horses of a line which is poorly represented to-day. Stamford was a, lull brother to Archduke and Paris, the three being from irioratio, by Eclipse, and she was bred I'or ten years consecutively to Sir Peter. There was an interval of five years between the two Derby winners, Paris being the tenth foal by Sit 1 Jfeter." No. 31. — Dick Burton's Mare. "Sometimes called a Barb mare. If this line really had a pure origin, it has failed to fulfil expectation. The only classic winners are Ruler (Leger) in 1876 and Fazzoletto (Two Thousand. Guineas) in J. 006. It wul be recognised 01 late yeais by Cape Flyaway,, and that good mare Oanezou, by Melbourne (1), dam by Velocipede (3j, he by BlacklocK. (2)." No. 32.— Barb Mare. — Dam of Dodsworth. "it is very evident (as in the case of 01) that the pure origin availed nothing in this case, for we find only one Oaks winner, Niko (1721) by Alexander. This line will oe better identified by horses of a later date, — Castor, Barbarian, ifitz-Gladiator, and Arthur Weliesley." "Warrior," I need inform my readers, has been a student of turf history for a quarter of a century, thanks to our magnificent Melbourne Public Library, and therefore I agree With Mr Lowe "that it is quite probable that ' Nos. 29, 31, and 62 were not of pure Eastern descent at bottom. ' Again, the author asserts: "It has been a loose fashion from ! all time to designate a filly of first cross by j an Arab stallion as 'an Arab amongst men i who do not breed to race and attach no value I to pedigree, and in early days the mistake ; might easily have crept into records unwittingly." ; IN 0.33. — Sister to Honeycomb Punch. "This line can only claim a solitary Derby winner, Sergeant, in 17bt>. Dungannon is from this line, which has almost died out." No. 34-. — Dau. of Hautboy. "Dam of Coneyskin's mare, progenitor of Hutton's Daphne. — Antonio in 1819 and Birmingham in 1830 placed two Legers to the credit of this family, not otherwise distinguished." No. 35. — Dau. of Bustler Mare. "The dam and grand-dam of Byerly Turk and Bay Bolton mares. — It" is quite possible this Bustler mare is identical with the dau. of Bustler dam of dau. ot Byerly Turk,' forming tap roots of the No. 8 line, but in the ab&ence of actual proof they must be classed as separate families. The prominent horses from this family are Haphazard, Bustard, (by Castrel), Newcourt, Consul, Battledore, and La Marchal." No. 36. — Dau. of Curwen's Bay Barb. "From this mare Economist descends. Economist is the only horse of note in the family. He was a son of Whisker (1) from Floranthe, by Octavian(B), the latter by Stripling (2), and he by Phenomenon (2), showing once more that the outside lines must be crossed with Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 to ensure success." The Australian-New Zealand horse Lochiel, who last season proved himself to be the -winning stallion of the Antipodes, is credited with belonging 10 the above line (36). Last year I wrote up the extended pedigree (Bruce Lowe's figures) of Lochiei for Mr James Thompson, Olinda, Rylstone, N.S.W., and 1 formed my own opinion as to his tap root — ■ namely, that the Young Greyhound marq came from the Montague mare (12). — "Warrior." No. 37.— Sister to Old Merlin. "Doctor Syntax and Little Red Rover trace to this mare, but tlie family is gracUially getting oxtincl*'

No. 38.— Thwait's Dun Mare. "I can find 1.0 horses of any note, save in this line, which speaks volumes for tfie potency of Eclipso as a sire. Few better horses than Pol-8-os ever carried a saddle. Thwait's Dun mare was evidently not a thoroughbred, judging by her colour." No. 39. — Bonny Black, from a Dau. of Persian Stallion. "Splendora, imported to Australia, and her descendants, Including a high class horse, Da«»worfch, by Yattendon," belong to the 39 family. "I know of nothing attaining prominence in England from this family during the century." No. 40.— -Royal Mare.— Dam of trimmer Mare. Since the book from .which I am quoting from was published, x have been hunting up for racehorses belonging to this family, and also No. 42, and have failed to find any. I must therefore wind up briefly the few remaining mares. . "Boston, sire of Lexington (America), traces to this mare." No. 41.— A Grasshopper Mare. "Dam of mare, by Palleine's Arab.—Oiseau, Cestus, and Theobald were from this line." No. 43.— Natural Barb Mare. "Presented by the Emperor of Morocco.— Balfe and underhand come under this family," A CLASSIFICATION OF THE FAMILIES. Now I have come up to a portion of Mr Lowe's work which should deeply interest readers who have followed up these articles. He classifies the 43 families, the last of which is the Natural Barb mare, into three classes. "Having now dealt with the several families in detail, and touched upon their specialities and peculiarities, and identified each by a figure, I (Bruce Lowe) propose to class them under three general headings 01 'Bunning, Sire, and Outside Lines.' The RUNNING Lines. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are entitled to -this distinctio'u by reason of their commanding position as classic winners. As before shown, 1, 2, aad S have won. respectively 42, 4t and 42 each of the 'hree great classic events. No. 4 comes next with 28 wins, and No. 5 follows , with 24 wins. The nearest approach to these ( are Nos. 6 and 7. Xhe former has 17 wins, j and the latter 14. No. 6's winnings were >. gained in the early days of Diomed, Eleanor, friam, &c, but the last 50 years it has been j with the exception of JVj.usjid (winner of Derby in 1859) unfruitful as regards classic , wins, and is not worthy to be included as a running line. No 7 has been barren of winners (bar Donovan, Derby and Leger) since West Australian's year, 1853. The Sire Lines. Nos. 5, 8* 11, 13, and lh have well earn ed j their distinction, seeing that nearly all the . successful sires of the world since, and in- j eluding Eclipse, have come direct from mares in these families, or where not actually in 1 these line their sires or dams' sires were j from one of these five families. Where there is any exception to the above, the stallion so bred has only been successful when mated with mares from sire families, or having a strong inbre9ding in their top removes to sire figures, showing very plainly that great sires cannot be bred without their aid. In j order to better rhow the amount ot sire blood, J and its position in a pedigree, I have thought it better to mark the sire figures in heavy type. [They appear in these articles in italic] The Outside Families. j includes all the numbers 'outside' of the FIVE BUNNING and FIVE SIIIE FIGUBE. Because they occupy this position it must not be supposed that they play no part in pedigrees. Many of the phenomenal racehorses or turf history trace back to these ' outside ' families in female line. It will be shown, however, that in all such, cases there has been an unusually strong inbreeding to the. 'running ' families, and ' sire ' also. _ Nor can I discover a single instance, in this century, of any great racehorse inbred to outside lines alone in the three top removes, and without the aid of the running aiid sire families close up. Judged by the laws of heredity, this is easy to explain. From the obscurity of their origin, lfc is to be p-esumed, there must have been numerous crosses of coarse • strains somewhere prior to their first being recorded in the Stud Book, consequently, when bred, even at the present day, 'too closely' to themselves, the tendency is to reproduce the original parent stock of the family, be it of pony, Flemish, or coaching «jrigin, and so forth." (To he continued)