MATERNAL DNA AND TAIL-FEMALE BLOODLINES

From the very beginning, any horse who could win in King’s Plate racing was worth big money, both while on the track and later as a sire. Thus in the early 18th century, for the first time in western Europe, it became important to know a horse’s exact ancestry because while part of a racehorse’s success depends upon having race-adapted conformation, another part---including the size and efficiency of the heart and lungs and the blood and tissue chemistry that underpins muscle physiology--is hidden and is often better predicted by the pedigree than by conformation alone. The most useful pedigrees accurately record not only the names of