THE STUD BOOK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3085, 30 April 1913, Page 49

THE STUD BOOK.

Anyone who peruses the New Zealand Stud Book through pleasure or business will grant that there is some grounds for Mr W. H. E. Wanklyn’s statement that the note which called forth his letter in last week's issue should have been beaded “A Faulty Stud Book,” because the Stud Book, whilst furnishing much that js greatly appreciated is also found lacking in other respects It is granted freely that Mr Wanklyn is not entirely to blame for all the shortcomings of more or less importance, because they are at times due to the laxity of breeders and studmasters The writer, however, holds that when stud books are issued under the auspices of such a ' body as the Racing Conference they should lack nothing, because they can well afford to pay someone to search for all the desirable information and not merely let it drift into the books. One of the chief faults of the volumes issued under the authority of the Racing Conference consists in the large number of unnamed 6took ; and this fault appears to be accentuated by the fact that the stock, has been bred by pro minen't owners who probably could easily supply the missing names. An apology is freely granted to Mr Wanklyn for alluding to Swimming Belt’s pedigree as being erroneously returned, and no answer would be deemed necessary if the phrase “obviously biassed generalities” had not occurred in h-.s letter. Swimming Bolt’s pedigree is both right and wrong, and although the fault may not be duo to Mr Wanklyn, still it is open to anyone to point out a seeming error particularly when it occurs with one of the few clean-bred Herod horses we 'nave It is wrong In one volume and presumably right in another wherein it stands ■•■ in cted. The “obviously biassed tone of the note may have unfortunately crept in, because the writer has boon misled on other occasions —notably, in Escapade s pcoigioc, which was erroneously given in Volume 11. and although corrected in the errata and addenda of the same issue, was /iigam erroneously returned in Volume 111, and finally given correct in Volume IV. Particulars attached to surviving mares that figure in the latest issue are of great value, but some of the shortcomings in earlier volumes allude to the meagre particulars given about Mersey (dam of Carbine). Locket. Frailty, and other gems of the New Zealand Stud Book which are worthy of every prominence, and more fully alluded to in the books published prior to the Racing Conference taking charge of the work. It is. indeed, a great shortcoming in the Stud Books of the land which bred Carbine, one of the greatest horses the world has known, that they do not contain a tabulated pedigree of the racehorse whoso name is known throughout the globe, but who is more frequently alluded to as being bred in Australia. It is the same with other horses, and instead of this country getting the credit for breeding them, it goes to Australia. Good horses are so rare tluit a country which has bred them should be eager and hungry to grasp opportunity to include them in the records, and not only that, but also to display t’ne fact to the fullest advantage. It is a matter of sincere regret that Mr Wanklyn’s services as compiler of the Stud Books is not appreciated with a proper financial reward, and that the merit of the work is kept alive in. a measure by his enthusiasm, which jt must be said is undoubtedly real, and evidenced by his work in other directions in reference to the thoroughbred. The somewhat egotistical remark that the Stud Books benefit the writer or any individual by tire additional work which shows the Brace Loire number on the male line of sires can bo passed over because the same source from which Mr Wanklyn derives his information is also open to others. The writer, for instance, has a genealogical tree of the leading French and English thoroughbreds, best known in the world either as sires or racehorses, and this lavs conveyed for years past, and shows at a glance, the bulk of the information which has been included in the latest issue of the Stud Book.