MORE CHAMPIONS OF THE TOUCHSTONE DIVISION
Alsab, 1939, is a descendant of Commando through Colin 1905. By Good Goods out of Winds Chant, his dam traces back to Ben Brush, Peter Pan and St. Simon. The champion colt of 1941 and 1942, Alsab had 51 career starts with 25 wins, 10 of which were consecutive. He was the 1942 winner of the Preakness. Always in high-class stakes company, Alsab had plenty of “stayer” capability. Compare his conformation to that of Dark Ronald or Son-in-Law, Sicambre or Gallant Man, and contrast it with that of Kelso, St. Simon or Round Table.
Plaudit, 1895, harks directly back to Eclipse: Note the low withers, round body, short back, short forearms, relatively level pelvis, and more highly angulated hind limbs. If you make a tracing of this horse and lay it over the tracing of Eclipse, you will find the two horses very similar, the main difference being that Plaudit’s cannon bones are proportionally longer. This should not be surprising: Plaudit is by Himyar, himself a grandson of Eclipse, out of Cinderella who descends from Eclipse through Harkaway on the sire side but also traces to Eclipse in tail-female. Himyar was “a sprinter of questionable stamina.” Plaudit won eight of 20 career starts, including the 1898 Kentucky Derby. Plaudit represents the direction that Thoroughbred breeding was destined to take during the 20th century: favoring the sprinter above all else. Plaudit’s descendants Minnesota Mac and Great Above were, like their sire and grandsire, sprint specialists—the latter setting a couple of track records at six furlongs.