THE BREEDING OF SOME N.Z. HORSES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VIII, Issue 414, 30 June 1898, Page 11

THE BREEDING OF SOME N.Z. HORSES.

(by “

Milroy.”)

Since Medallion left New 7 Zealand and took up his quarters at Tocal his stock have been winning all along the line, while his three-quarter brother, Thunderbolt, has been busy over in South Australia begetting all sorts of winners. A brother to Medallion, Crackshot, has also been keeping up the family charter well in his native Maoriland. Mr Frank Reynolds has been generally accounted by those who know little of him to be a particularly fortunate man to buy such a stallion as Medallion on the very eve of the horse’s success ; but those who know’ the unassuming squire of Tocal best must be aware that it was owing more to his sound judgment and knowledge of breeding than luck that led to the purchase of Medallion.

A friend just returned from Adelaide tells me that Thunderbolt’s stock are chiefly chestnuts, with plenty of white on their legs, broad blazed heads, and are’ well ticked with grey hairs. This is how Medallion gets them. There is no mistaking them in the paddock by their colour or by their abundance of bone. That both these splendid sons of Loeket should get their stock quite different from the typical Musket mould and colour may appear strange to those who know’ something of Musket and Touchstone, to whom he is inbred. Touchstone never got a chestnut, and it is said Musket never got one. However, his sons and grandsons have, especially those that are out of Locket.

“ The Druid,” who lived in the days of Cornua, describes that horse as a very grand chestnut, who filled the paddocks of Sir Tatton Sykes with white-faced, white-legged chestnuts, who in their days were a great power on the racecourse. In his first season he got 16 colts and one filly. All the colts were winners, and among them were Ranter and Reveller. Comus went on begetting white-legged chestnuts until his 28th year, and the king of them all was Humphrey Clinker, who begat Melbourne, whose line lives to-day in the descendants of West Australian, the sire of Musket’s dam. As everybody knows, Medallion is by Nordenfeldt, a son of Musket. Nordenfeldt’s maternal grandsire (Angler) was out of Marchioness, by Melbourne, the before mentioned sire of West Australian, therefore Medallion’s sire had two crosses of the only existing line direct from Comus. Medallion’s dam was out of Keepsake, by Daniel O’Rourke, whose dam Forget-me-not, was by Hetman Plat off, a grandson of Comus. However, Keepsake’s dam overshadows the rest of Medallion’s ancestors with the blood of Comus, as her sire, Hampton, by Sultan, had a double cross of him in three removes, and her dam was by Comus himself. A strong corrective to this very large amount of inbreeding is there, however, in the shape of three strains of Sir Peter (3) in Keepsake’s dam. With the exception of Melbourne (1), by Humphrey Clinker (8), the Comus line died out in spite of his own wonderful potency. However, it is now apparent that the blood is coming to life again after lying dormant for over 60 years, and the old time virulence of Comus has again come to the surface in Thunderbolt and Medallion, more especially so in the latter. There in the Tocal paddocks are the white-faced, whitelegged chestnuts that “The Druid” wrote so graphically of 60 years ago, and there on the racecourses are these Comus marked chestnuts, by both Medallion and Thunderbolt, winning all before them. This may be a coincidence, “ fancy,” the unthinking will have it, but it is a “ coincidence” that should spur breeders and students to hustle up and forage out facts that may be of

the greatest assistance to them in breeding racehorses on the same kind of blood that Sir Tatton Sykes bred from Comus over 60 years ago. Comus got hisjgreatest son, Humphrey Clinker, out of a mare belonging to the 8 family, and that horse got Melbourne out of a 1 mare. Medallion’s dam belongs to the 8 family, and he has got his best horse (Gold Medallist) out of a 1 mare. These “ resurrections ” have occurred before, as witness Musket, the very counterpart of Touchstone; Barcaldine, another West Australian; Gibraltar is Gladiateur over again ; Autonomy is a typical Partisan; Gozo a Wild Dayrell pure and simple ; Jeweller is Vedette in the life again, and where is it possible on this earth to get a better picture of Herring’e painting of Sultan than Abercorn is to-day ? That these horses throw to their ancestors in looks goes for nothing, but if they get their stock in the same style and likeness as did some great ancestor to whom they were inbred, it behoves the breeder to look up the kind of blood to which that great ancestor was partial and procure it for his stallion. What son of Yattendon ever got his stock in the same style—colour and type —as did the old horse or his sire, Sir Hercules ? The" only horses I know of that have given us anyhing like the Yattendon type back again are hxs ons. Sweet William and Clieveden —the latter was given away to the Americans. Perhaps in another 30 years or so another Yattendon will arise in a horse that is inbred to him, as imported Kingston arose and reproduced Partisan almost every time, but nobody knew he was doing so. Let anybody take a picture of Wild Dayrell and compare it to any typical Gozo and they will see Wild Dayrell there every time. But to return to Comus. The best of the Comus horses were Humphrey Clinker (8), Grey Momus (2), Reveller (19), Confederate (5), and Matilda (5). Humphrey Clinker got his two best horses, Melbourne and Rockingham, out of mares belonging to the 1 family, and Reveller got his best out of Luss (2). Sir Tatton Sykes (8), a great racehorse, who to-day appears in many first-class pedigrees, was by Melbourne out of a daughter of Margrave (2), from Patty Primrose, by Confederate (5). The latter, like Humphrey Clinker, was by Comus out of a Cervantes mare, and Cervantes belonged to the 8 family. The foregoing shows hr that. t.ha hinnfi . ~ . I i ( the S-:

argument oy putting a tew ot his Ur an brook fillies — out of low numbered mares —to Medallion, because Cranbrook has a double cross of Melbourne, and his dam is by Cathedral (8), a son of Newminster (8) ; in fact, Cathedral comes from the dam of Sir Tatton Sykes, whom he reached in three removes. There is just one more “coincidence ” to touch upon before I leave Medallion. The sporting world all know the value of his son Gold Medallist, who is out of Corolla by St. Albans, a son of Blair Athol The dam of the last-named is by Melbourne (L). Corolla is out of Water Lily (1), by Rapid Bay (2), whose second dam is by Melbourne. Water Lily is out of White and Blue (imp.) whois by Monseigneur (2) —a son of Orphelin (1), by Fitz Gladiator, a grandson of Reveller, while Orphelin was a grandson of Slane, a half-brother of Comus. If my conjecture is correct —and I have all tha evidence on my side —there is a big Comus revival ahead with Medallion, and if the writers of the days of our grandfathers knew a horse from a handsaw, the resurrection of the blood of Comus will add considerably to the pace and value of our racehorses.