The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

RACE HORSE

—Is the kind of horse bred solely for the TURF, and whose blood must be properly authenticated to have descended in a STATE of PURITY from one generation to another, without the least contamination by any accidental or intentional cross whatever. Horses of this description are not entirely selected, as others in general are, by the make, shape, strength, and bone, but in a great degree by the estimation of the blood from which they have descended; and from which circumstance alone is derived their claim to the appellation of BLOOD HORSES, which they properly continue to retain, and are alone entitled to. We are furnished with the most indubitable assurances, that the Arabs are (if possible) more tenacious, precise, and correct, in the pedigree, or genealogical descent, of their superior and unmixed breed, than the sporting breeders of this country; and that the PEDIGREES of each peculiar and distinguished BLOOD has been for CENTURIES transmitted from generation to generation, with the same authenticated accuracy, as is now the regular practice with every racing stud in the kingdom. The emulative impulse of the English sportsman to attain perfection, most probably suggested the idea of introducing the celebrated BLOOD of Arabia, that judicious experimental crosses might be made with the best of our own.

The earliest instances upon record, were during, and subsequent to, the reign of King Charles the Second, who sent abroad his master of the horse to procure a selection of foreign HORSES and MARES for the establishment of a BREEDING STUD; and the mares then brought over (as well as many of their produce) have since been called ROYAL mares. The principal Arabians, Barbs, and Turks, by which the original breed of Britain is supposed in some respects to have been improved, are as follows. The White Turk was the property of Mr. Place, stud-master to Oliver Cromwell when Protector; he was the sire of Wormwood and Commoner. Dodsworth, though foaled in England, was a natural Barb, his dam having been imported when in foal during the reign of Charles the Second, and was called a royal mare. The Lister Turk was brought into England by the Duke of Berwick from the Siege of Buda, in the reign of James the Second, and was the sire of Snake, Brisk, Coneyskins, and Piping Peg. The Byerly Turk was Captain Byerly's charger in Ireland in King William's Wars; he was sire of Sprite, Black-Hearty, Archer, Basto, Grasshopper, the Byerly Gelding, and Jigg. Greyhound was got in Barbary, after which both sire and dam were purchased, and brought to England, by Mr. Marshall. He was the sire of Old Othello, Whitefoot, Osmyn, Rake, Samson, Goliah, Favourite, and Desdemona.

The D'Arcy White Turk was the sire of Old Hautboy, Grey Royal, and Cannon. The D'Arcy Yellow Turk was the sire of Spanker, Brimmer, and the great great grand-dam of Cartouch. The Marshall, or Sellaby Turk, was the property of Mr. Marshall's brother, stud-master to King William, Queen Anne, and King George the First; he was the sire of some famous runners, but most of them were mares. Curwen's Bay Barb, the Thoulouse Barb, Darley's Arabian, the Belgrade Turk, the Godolphin Arabian, and others, may be referred to under the head Barbs in the First Volume. After having crossed the blood in all possible directions, (as fancy prompted in one place, or prudent deliberation justified in another,) numerous experiments were made (and for large sums) in bringing the different crosses to the post in opposition to each other; when, after every possible refinement, and every judicious exertion, to ascertain the superiority of the Arabian blood, it was at length most clearly proved, that the more they bred in and in with the foreign horses and mares, the more they acquired speed for half a mile or a mile; but became gradually SLOWER, and longer upon the ground, the farther they had to run. This discovery having been made (and proved by various means to be correct) at the very moment of the great Duke of Cumberland's having brought the sport to nearly its present zenith of attraction and celebrity about the year 1760, the rage for Arabian extraction has been gradually upon the decline with the sporting aggregate from that period to the present time; unless with those who have bred more with a view to variation and novelty than SPEED for the TURF.

Races were formerly decided in much shorter distances than at present, and few colts or fillies were then ever brought to the post till four years old. Plates for three years old are now common at all places of sport from one extremity of the kingdom to the other; and matches with two years old COLTS and FILLIES, and even with yearlings, are seen constantly run at Newmarket; and is the very reason why so many of the most valuable are completely ruined, and all their faculties of superior speed destroyed, by the very time they attain the age at which their predecessors STARTED for the FIRST time. Few matches, sweepstakes, or plates, are now decided in a less distance than FOUR MILES, where the horses are five and six years old, as this is considered an unerring criterion of distinguishing between, or annexing BOTTOM to SPEED: many tolerable horses have taken the lead, and kept it for a mile, or even two, that have been nearly distanced in running the FOUR; and a chain of well-observed and corroborating circumstances it was of this kind, that brought the farther propagation of Arabian blood in this country into disrepute. Whether such change may not have been occasioned by private prejudice transformed to public report, may be admitted a doubt; because it is universally known, some, indeed very many, of the fleetest horses this country ever produced, have been the immediate descendants from some of the Arabians before recited.

Flying Childers is said (as stories never lose by transmission) to have ran a mile in a minute: most probably, and most truly, he ran "one third of a mile, at the rate of a MILE in a MINUTE:" it is admitted, he ran, with nine stone two pounds upon his back, FOUR MILES in six minutes and forty-eight seconds; and this horse was undoubtedly got by, and the immediate descendant of, Darley's Arabian. Firetail and Pumpkin ran a mile in a minute and a half; and each of their pedigrees run in a double and treble degree into the best Arabian blood in only two generations. Bay Malton ran four miles over York (in the year 1763) in seven minutes, forty-three seconds and a half; and his blood was in and in from the Godolphin Arabian, and two Barbs in parallel directions. Eclipse ran the four miles over York, carrying twelve stone, in eight minutes, without going at his rate; and his pedigree goes directly on the side of the DAM to Regulus, who was got by the Godolphin Arabian; and through his sire Marsk to Squirt, who was got by Bartlet's Childers; from which chain of authenticated facts, it should incontrovertibly appear to every mind of impartiality, that the breed of blood horses in England has been very much improved by the judicious crosses so successfully introduced. The pedigrees of all thorough bred horses have been so long and so justly recorded, that Mr. Weatherby has given in his Stud Book, the accurate origin of above FOUR THOUSAND horses, mares, colts, and fillies, the produce of the last sixty years only, (exclusive of numbers of an earlier date,) and in which may be traced the precise pedigree of every particular horse, up to the origin of any race or blood upon record.