THE SAPPHO FAMILY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1241, 29 January 1914, Page 11

THE SAPPHO FAMILY.

The English thoroughbred has been built up from select mares, and it has only been in recorded existence for about 250 years. Some of the best of them cannot be traced 200 years, and some lines were better 100 -years ago than to-day. “Milroy,” in dealing with some depredatory notes

penned by Mr. Robertson, an English authority oh Beragoon’s breeding, has the. following:-—Beragoon can be traced for 80 years, and: shows the best sires of their times for five generations. I have read that the old-time English breeder considered seven generations as the acme of purity. Now ■ look at the material that Beragoon’s pedigree back to Sappho is made of: Rous’ Emigrant (4), by Pioneer (1); Sir Hercules (3), inbred to Whalebone (1), Whisker (1), and Partisan (1); Tim Whiffler. (3), a grandson of Van Tromp (3), by Lanercost (3), by Liverpool (11), by Tramp (3); Trenton, by Musket (3), son of Toxophilite (3), while Trenton’s dam was by Goldsborougb (13), one of our greatest stallions, who came direct from Tramp, (3), through Weatherbit (12), son of Sheet Anchor (12), by Lottery (11); and his (Goldshorough’s) dam was by Fisherman (11) whose dam was by Sheet Anchor (12) Thus in Trenton we have Sir Hercules and Rous’ Emigrant again. On top of all this comes Bill of Portland (St. Simon 11—Galopin 3), whose dam was by Sterling; (12), son of Oxford (12), by . Birdcatcher (11); and her dam was by,, knight of St. Patrick (3). .Thus . it will be seen Wigelrtiar is very inbred to the 3, 11, and 12 families, and had a double cross of Sir Hercules and Rous’ Emi-

grant. Upon this crowding of strong strains came Multiform, who belonged to the same female line (18) as Trenton, and was by Hotchkiss, a son of Musket (3), by Toxophilite (3), and was out of a mare by Oxford (12), son of Birdcatcher (11); while Multiform’s dam was by Sterlingworth (3), a son of Sterling (12), by Oxford (12), son of Birdcatcher (11), and his granddam was by Rosicrucian, son of Beadsman (13) —same family as

Goldsborough—who was by Weatherbit (12), son of Sheet Anchor (12), by Lottery (11), by Tramp (3). Fisherman ran back to a mare by Whisker (1), to whose family Sir Hercules and Musket were very inbred. Multiform’s dam ran back to a Whisker mare, and Rosicrucian’s dam traced back to a mare by Middleton (1), a near relation to Whisker, Whalebone and Partisan. I incline to believe that with such an accumulation of fine families and individuals Beragoon or any other horse can worry along without an English taproot. I have worked in all these figures and individuals, and repeated them as they appear, not with any idea of convincing Mr. Robertson, but to hammer the facts into horsefanciers not quite so learned as he, and to convince them that even a scientist and a college don can occasionally make blunders, especially when dealing with a subject which, for one to be accomplished at, needs practical experience as well as book learning.