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CHAPTER II.

A successional and historic review of the English race horse, from the year 1689 to the present time.

It is purposed to give a sketch of the English race horse from the year 1689 up to the present time, and to take the three imported horses, known as the Darley Arabian, the Byerly Turk, and the Godolphin Arabian, and trace from them separately the various families that have sprung from them in direct male descent. The other imported horses are not brought in, as they have not handed down their blood in direct male descent, although they did their work by improving the blood of the former running horse of this country; among such are the Helmsley Turk, Place's Turk, Lister's Turk, D'Arcey White and Yellow Turks, Dodsworth, the Belgrade Turk, and perhaps prominently among these importations, Curwen's bay Barb, Sir J. Williams's Turk (or Honeywood's Arabian), Bloody Buttocks, and the Leedes Arabian. Nor has it been attempted to give here a full list of the Eastern horses brought to this country. It is more than likely Markham's Arabian was not used at all, although King James I. gave 500 guineas for him, as the prejudice was very strong against the Arabian, and the Master of the Horse took a dislike to him. Although

small, it is quite possible he may have been a horse of excellent blood. The imported horses were used among the mares of the country; a mixture, perhaps, of every kind of horse under the sun, or nearly so. But besides these were others: King Charles II. sent abroad to procure a number of foreign horses and mares for breeding; the mares thus imported were called royal mares, as were also many of their produce; these also enter into the composition of our race horse; they were probably partly of Eastern blood. Next it is proposed to show how these various families are represented at the present time at the stud, or by horses which may have lately retired from the Turf, or may be about to leave, and which may be likely to appear as sires. Some horses may be mentioned at greater length, and other matters brought forward to help deductions being drawn,, and which, it is hoped, may be rather interesting than tedious. As the eldest, the line from the Byerly Turk shall first come under consideration.

THE BYERLY TURK'S LINE.

Captain Byerly's charger, used by him in 1687 in King William's wars in Ireland, does not seem to have been much patronised at the stud, but he was the sire of Sprite, thought to have been nearly as good as Leedes, who was a son of the Leedes Arabian (Leedes was a horse of entirely Eastern blood); but Sprite did not hand down the Byerly Turk's line, and we must look to Jigg, whose dam was by Spanker. Jigg begot Partner from a sister to Mixbury, who was by Curwen's bay Barb.

The latter was a present to Louis XIV. from Muly Ishmael, King of Morocco. Partner was the sire of Tartar, whose dam, Meliora, was by Fox (Fox's sire, Clumsy, was only half-bred, but Fox's dam was a finelybred mare, entirely of Eastern blood, and very similarly bred to the dam of the two Childers). Tartar was foaled 1743, and was the sire of King Herod, commonly called Herod, whose dam, Cypron, notwithstanding certain flaws in her pedigree, was a highly-bred mare, having two direct strains of the Darley Arabian in her veins (her sire, Blaze, was a grandson of the Darley Arabian). Herod had two sons-Woodpecker, foaled in 1773, and Highflyer in 1774--who handed down his blood through two rival families. Woodpecker's dam, Miss Ramsden, was by Cade, a son of the Godolphin Arabian. The dam. of Highflyer was Rachel, by Blank, also a son of the Godolphin Arab, from a Bartlet Childers mare.

Although Woodpecker and Highflyer were similarly bred, the former is a particularly well-bred horse, and worthy of special notice. He traces back to the Darley Arabian through a mare who played a very conspicuous part in the English stud-Lord Lonsdale's Darley Arabian mare. Miss Ramsden's dam was by the Lonsdale bay Arabian, her granddam by Bay Bolton, her great granddam the Darley Arabian mare, entirely of Eastern blood. Pursuing the system of going by seniority, the line from Herod through Woodpecker, the elder son, will be first reviewed.

In 1787 Buzzard was accredited to him; a chestnut like his sire; his dam, Misfortune, was by Dux, by Mat

chem, a son of Cade, of the Godolphin Arab line.

Buz

zard was the sire of three celebrated chestnut horses, to wit, Castrel, Selim, and Rubens, foaled respectively in the years 1801, 1802, and 1805. Their dam, the Alexander mare, has often been styled the most remarkable mare in the Stud Book. Without going quite so far, in all justice it may be said there are few more celebrated; her sire, Alexander, was by Eclipse, from Grecian Princess. The dam of the Alexander mare was by Highflyer. Castrel, the eldest of the three brothers, begot Merlin, foaled in 1815, and Pantaloon, a chestnut with dark spots, in 1824. Pantaloon was the sire of Sleight of Hand, foaled in 1836. The late Sir Tatton Sykes was very partial to the blood, and had very many of his mares in his stud. 1841 was a great year for Pantaloon, as his daughter, Ghuznee, won the Oaks, and his son, Satirist, the Doncaster St. Leger, beating Coronation, the Derby winner, for whom the St. Leger was looked upon as a certainty. In the same year Satirist also astonished the public by carrying off the Gold Vase at Ascot from Lanercost. He was a bay-brown horse; his dam Sarcasm, a brown mare, by Teniers, a son of Rubens, from Banter (Touchstone's dam), by Master Henry.

Ghuznee was a bright bay, and through her dam Languish, also bay, traced back to Herod (the founder of both the Woodpecker and Highflyer lines), through Cain, Paulovitz, Sir Paul, Sir Peter Teazle (commonly called Sir Peter), and Highflyer. She was a very fine and strongly-formed mare, although only 15 hands and half an inch, and was pronounced by Mr. George Tatter

sall to be of a shape peculiarly calculated to make a superior brood mare. Pantaloon was the sire of The Libel, foaled in 1842, a brown horse from a Camel mare. He was the sire of the following also:-Elthiron, a very neat horse, foaled in 1846; Windhound, foaled in 1847 ; Hernandez, in 1848 (winner of the Two Thousand Guineas); Hobbie Noble, in 1849, quite a sensational horse; The Reiver, in 1850; and Miserrima, a brown filly, foaled in 1848. Elthiron, Windhound, Miserrima, Hobbie Noble, and The Reiver, were all from one mare, Lord Westminster's Phryne, by Touchstone. The three former were brown, the two latter bay; their Touchstone dam may have influenced their colour.

But to return to Windhound, in whom we are most concerned, as the reputed and generally accepted sire of Thormanby, winner of the Derby in 1860, now at the stud, with a chance of making himself a name, if he has not already done so. The beautiful and celebrated Alice Hawthorn, whose breeding will be commented upon further on, was the dam of Thormanby.

Presuming Thormanby to be the bona fide son of Windhound, he must certainly be put down as the best representative of the line at the present day, and the honour of the family would appear to be confided to his keeping.

The blood of the Darley Arabian and of the Godolphin Arab was first introduced into the Turk's line in Herod through the dam of Blaze, the latter the sire of Cypron (Herod's dam). The dam of Blaze, the Confederate filly, was by Confederate, by Conductor, of the

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