DERBY WINNERS AS SIRES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1246, 5 March 1914, Page 18

DERBY WINNERS AS SIRES.

Since New Zealand and sister colonies keep on importing bloodstock from the Old Land, much interest centres round the doings of the stud horses there. Their records are now more closely followed than ever. The “Field” has a most interesting and instructive article on the subject, pointing out that during the season which closed in December “stake money to the amount of £550,000 was (probably) won by the various horses in training. We have not seen an exact total of the actual amount, but from the figures of previous years we may take it that the sum stated is not very far wrong. Anyhow, it is certain that over half a million has been disbursed, and the amount has been won by stock representing 329 individual sires, while there are two-and-twenty cases of doubtful parentage, representing a sum of not more than £5OOO. About half of the full total has been won by the first twenty horses in the list, and the other half has been divided among some 300 stallions. This is just a little remarkable, for it goes to prove that real merit will assert itself in breeding, and that a great number of the big winners—themselves often of what is thought to be undeniable breeding—are very often failures at the stud. And in this connection a big performer who gets a few, but not many, winners, who does not sire anything

as good as himself, and who, in fact, makes no particular mark at the stud, is always put down as a failure, whereas he may be only a comparative failure, who has been so greatly boomed that his want of success is much more widely noticed than it would otherwise be. Derby winners, tor example, always have great chances afforded them when sent to the stud. They get picked mares, which means mares who have proved themselves as breeders, or who have eeen big winners, have come of winning lines, and have the blood which ic is supposed will nick with that of the horse.” Not all Derby winners are successful at the stud, continues our authority, who mentions the names of recent winners, well remembered by the present genration. St. Gatien and Harvester were both failures, though St. Gatien did sire winners, and his blood is to be found in certain female lines. Melton was a good average Derby winner, and a good average but hardly a great stallion —this is the sire of Seaton Delaval —while Ormonde was an exceptional horse and unlucky at the stud, for he went wrong almost at once, having left Orme to carry on the line. We cannot go into any lengthy particulars about these really great horses, but going very briefly through the list, Merry Hampton was a bad Derby winner and a poor stallion, and at the moment we can only recall his daughter, Merry Wife, the dam of Santoi, as a transmitter of his blood. Ayrshire was a very successful sire, whose blood both in male and female

lines is doing well, and Donovan got a lot of winners, but the blood in the male line is nothing like so much to the fore as it was a dozen years ago. Sir Hugo did not do much for posterity, and Common was to a great extent a stud failure, though there is now a chance of Mushroom carrying on his line. Sainfoin sired Rock Sand and Rock Sand Tracery, and thus a moderate Derby winner—as Sainfoin undoubtedly w r as—sired a better horse than himself, and his son a horse who, as far as can be judged, was better than either. Ismglass was a stud success, while Ladas had some successes, but never did anything like as well us he was expected to do. Sir Visto made no big mark, but Persimmon was a giant, both as a racehorse and at the stud, and has headed the winning sire list on four different occasions. G'altee More has done well at the stud in Russia, but Jeddah was a failure, and Flying Fox a sucess. Diamond Jubilee is doing well in the Argentine, but Volodyovski has not sired anything approaching a great horse, while Ard Patrick went to Russia and Rock Sand to America, and is now in France. St. Amant has not done much as yet, though be sires a fair number of winners, and the same may be said of Cicero; but both are still young horses, and their day may come. Spearmint, on the other hand, has already made a big mark, and Orby, who is only ten years old, had five winners of ten races last year. Two fillies and eight-and-twenty colts have won the Derby in the last thirty

years, and we may take it that about half of the colts did well at the stud, while the other half were failures. This year there are three Derby winners among the twenty leading stal-lions-—Rock Sand, Spearmint and Isinglass, to wit —and of the other seventeen there are several who did not greatly distinguish themselves on the Turf. Blacklock blood is very conspicuous at the head of the list, the first four horses and the sixth and seventh all being the tail male descendants of the famous Bishop Burton stallion, and three out of the first four coming from different lines. Desmond at the head of the list, St. Frusquin, William the Third, and Chaucer, respectively, in fourth, sixth, and seventh places, are all by St. Simon; Sundridge, in second place, is by Amphion; and Santoi, in third place, is by Queen’s Birthday. All the half-dozen come from Vedette, who won the Two Thousand in 1857, four of them through St. Simon and Galopin, by Vedette, a fifth (Sundridge) through Amphion, Rosebery, and Speculum, by Vedette, and the sixth (Santoi) through Queen’s Birthday, Hagioscope, and Speculum again. This, it must be admitted, is very wonderful, if only because no blood in the world was more roundly abused some forty to fifty years ago. From our earliest days we were interested in bloodstock, and studied the breeding of the big winners of the day, and we can well remember the fulminations which were constantly made concerning the “accursed Blacklock blood.”

Unfortunately, we are unable to lay our hands on any of the writings which condemned the horse, who is generally considered to be the founder of the line, and we do not know lor certain what there was in the blood which seemed to infuriate certain writers of a later day; but “The Druid” thought well of it, and wrote: “No blood in the Stud Book is better winded, or run better when full of flesh, which shows that the internal conformation is good, and ought to be perpetuated. Their aptitude for a distance displays itself in a muscular neck, without which few horses ever yet stayed; and they have also great depth from the withers to the shoulder points, and an immense roundness of rib in making the curve from the spine.” It will be seen from the above that “The Druid” praised rather than abused the blood, and he wrote at a time when the line of Blacklock was too young to have asserted itself as it has since done. .Voltigeur and Voltaire, the links between Blacklock and Vedette, were good horses, but the latter not exactly a great one. Voltigeur, on the other hand, was quite one of the equine heroes of his day, and there were those who thought that if he had been allowed to run some stones heavier he would never have been beaten. He won the Derby and St. Leger of his year, and he was possessed of very beautiful action, and though he was not always a great stud success, he sired Vedette, who in turn was responsible for Speculum and Galopin, and now;

the blood appears to be more formidable than ever it was, and it is somewhat curious to find the lines which have come through Speculum contesting the highest places in the sire list with the St. Simon —Galopin line, which made its mark twenty years ago, and has been holding its own ever since. Extraordinary vitality been a special feature of the descendants of Glalopin. The Sundridge family appear to be calmer of temperament, many of them very beautiful, but not the pronounced stayers that are the horses descended from St. Simon, or those of what may be called the new line of Vedette, best represented by Santoi. Many of these have a flamily likeness, which chiefly shows itself in a big, round barrel, a tnickish neck, and very sturdy quar ters; but at present they lack the quality which is to be found in a great number of the St. Simons, and also in nearly all the horses sired by Sundridge. All these lines seem to produce very big horses at times. Prince Palatine and his sire, Persimmon, are notably instances of good and yet very big St. Simons. Sunningdale and other son of Sundridge were big horses,, and Santoi has sired a very big and massive horse in Santair. So far no classic winners have come from the new branch of the family, and not very many from the Sundridge line; but Sunstar and Jest won four classic races between them, and it is quite likely that there will be further classic successes in this direction. The powerful neck is still

a great characteristic of the male desendjants of Blacklock, but the St. Simon family—especially some of the earlier ones —had long, drooping quarters, and were much higher on tne leg than their ancestors —judged from their portraits. At present, then, it would seem that there is little likelihood of the Blacklock family being deposed from its place; bU|t among bloodstock the unexpected is always happening and now there is strong threatening of a great Herod revival through Roi Herode and The Tetrarch. It is too early to say anything definite on this subject, except that the stock will be given every chance, and the future matings of Roi Herode will be most carefully considered, and that it seems likely such a performer as The Tetrarch will some day assert himself at the studWhether the blood will be found to be possessed of stamina as well as speed is. also matter for conjecture, but it is a fact that the dwindling Herod lines in this country, before the arrival of Roi Herode, were productive of sprinters only, and that it is many years since a long race was won by one of the line. As far as we can see —but we may have missed one —Billow, who* won the! Ascot Stakes in 1890, was the last Herod of English blood to win a long-dis-tance race; but Roi Herode was a good long-distance runner, and it must always be remembered that during the first half of the nineteenth century stamina was thought to be the strong point of the Herod line,