Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-01-19
"eREEplNG ON CAPACITY.
LFrom CIark's Horse Re, iew

it has done on the racing battle ground ;
and the chief use and excuse for racing
is its uneiring aud stern justice in de-
terminng the value of blood, and thus
guiding the breeder in selection and
mating. The verdict of the turf is the
supreme verdict in breeding for racing
purposes. and to that verdict all theories,
isms and precOnceived notions must. by
the logical reasoner, be subOrdinated.
The strains of blood that most success
fully meet the turf tests are the mos,
valuable to the breeder who Is trying to
breed horses that can race, and they are
the strains that must survive, because
they are the fittest. Any theory of
breeding that is found wanting when
weighed in the scales of turf perfor-
nance will be cast aside as mere rubbish
and fallacy by the intelligent breeder
who aims to breed trotters that can trot
and prove the worth that is them in
battle with their peers. The man who is
breeding for the turf may elaborate the
sound old maxim, Breed to the win
ners" into an ampler philosophy by
making his rule of action to read: Breed
to the blood that wins and that pro-
duct winners.
The most accompli, he'd, the most sue
cessful and probably the most famous
breeder of race horses known to the an
nails of the English turf, Lord Falmouth,
would use neither horse or mare in his
stud that had not first shown good form
on the turf, and it naturally follows
that the pedigrees he built up were of
the really rich kind-of blood that both
performed and produced. Indeed, the
lesson of all experience in breeding the
oldest racing breed, the thoroughbred, is
so conclusive that few breeders Of run
ming race horses place any particular
value upon an animal, no matter how
well bred, that has failed to race success
fully. King Thomas sold on his royal
breeding as a yearlIng for $4,000. He
failed under the turf test, and-bred
even as he was, by King Ban. out of the
great producer Maud Hampton-finally
sold for few hundred. He did not race
himself, and thoroughbred breeders
reasoned that it was improbable, even
though bred in the purple, that he would
prove sire of race horses, for it is not
one of the canons of natures law that
animals reproduce capacities that they
themselves do not possess. The breed
ing of trotters and PAGERS is rapidly
working toward the general recognition
of this sound principle.
Our purpose was not, however, here
to dwell particularly upon the merit of
performers but to consider the other es-
sential phase in estimating blood value
thar capacity which, for lack of bet
ter name. we call prepotency, or the
power to "brced on" In these modern
days sire must meet three tests, viz.
| % He must be IA trotter himself; ~
he must get trotters, and (3) his sons
and daughters must produce trotters.
In the "elder days" of breeding the first
essential was not insisted upon, and as
we are here dealing with what we might
call the second generation Of great trot-
ting sires-horses whose prime was
passed before the general recognition OF
the wisdom of ascertainiIg whether a
horse could himself trOt before spending
the time and money to find out whether
he could produce trotte:s-that phase OF
the question need occur only incidental
ly.
1t was, we believe, the late Gen.
Withers who wrote that it was the CHIEF
glory of sire not only that he should
/ get trotters himself, but that he should
/ transmit his own speed-producing power
to his sons and daughters. The master
of Farlawn reyeled in the showing
made under this test by "the idol of his
heart" AlmOnt, and, though dead, the
record of each succeeding year keeps
alive and green the thoughts and deduc-
tions the general delighted to utter.
Reasonably, then, after horse has
sired trotters himself and reaches the
requisite age the public expects his sons
and daughters to produce trotters; and
if they fail to do so the failure is re.
fected upon the sre's reputation, and
his blood becomes steadily less fashiona
BILE and less in demand, even though he
himself successfully gets trOtters.
In estimating the standing of the great
progenitors, or heads of families and
sub-families, they are, as matter OF
fact, credited less for what they did il
the way of production themselves thar
for what their sons and daughters have
done. Below we have compiled a table
designed to indicate the "breeding-on'
capacity of the blood of the fourteen
great sires the full tabulations of whose
families was such valuable and popu
lar feature of the Christmas Review
1t gives, to the second generation, the
"standard performer" is to say
trOtters that have trOttcd in 80 or bet