EQUUS

THOROUGHBR­EDS IN RYSDYK’S HAMBLETONI­AN’S PEDIGREE

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Horses featured in this section were all born before 1850; most contribute­d to RH’s ancestry or are closely related to horses who did. Portraits and descriptio­ns are presented in chronologi­cal order of foaling, along with whether the horse was an amblergall­oper (presumptiv­e carrier of the DMRT3-STOP allele) or a trotter-galloper (wild-type allele). 1739: Regulus, by the Godolphin horse out of Grey Robinson by the Bald Galloway by St. Victor’s Barb, she out of a mare by Snake by the Lister Turk. The tail female goes to Hobby. Regulus was a small horse by today’s standards, standing under 14 hands as this realistic portrait by James Seymour shows.

The stallion’s ears and tail have been mutilated, ear-trimming and tail-docking having been the height of fashion in mid-18th century England. Regulus was undefeated in 9 starts, all heat races of not less than 4 miles and some as many as 12—all in a morning’s work.

1740: Blank, by the Godolphin horse out of Amorett by Bartlett’s Bleeding Childers by the Darley “Arabian.” Amorett’s tail female goes back to Old Bald Peg, St. Victor’s Barb and Hobby. Blank’s bloodline is widely recognized as the major source of trotter-gallopers, and he is an important ancestor not only of the American Standardbr­ed but of the American Quarter Horse. 1745: Sampson, by Blaze, who is a half-brother to Blank. Sampson is out of a mare by Hip by Curwen’s Bay Barb. His ancestry contains a relatively high proportion of Barb and purebred or “Asil” Arabian, and this and the horse’s larger stature and overall build suggest that he was a trotter rather than an ambler-galloper. 1750: Marske, the sire of the speed demon Eclipse, whose progeny form one of the three major families of Thoroughbr­eds. Marske is a grandson of Bartlett’s Bleeding Childers by the Darley “Arabian,” and out of a granddaugh­ter of Hutton’s Bay Barb (also sometimes called a Turk and may have been a cross of the two). Marske’s tail female goes to the Lister, Helmsley and Byerley Turks, and to Old Bald Peg. Marske stood no more than 14 hands and embodies ambler-galloper conformati­on. 1760: Gimcrack, another horse standing barely 14 hands. He is by Cripple by the Godolphin horse, and out of Miss Elliott, who traces in sireline to the Byerley Turk. Gimcrack’s tail female is a blend of Barb, Turk, and Hobby. A turf superstar, we know from written reports that this stallion was an ambler-galloper.

1776: Medley, a son of Gimcrack out of Arminda by Snap, which makes him a close relative of Shark. Medley was, however, a much smaller horse, reportedly standing just 14 hands and one-half inch at the withers. Arminda’s tail female is likewise very similar to Shark’s and Medley therefore carries almost 30 percent Barb ancestry. Not outstandin­gly successful in heat racing, he was imported to Virginia in about 1783 where he was used on Hobby mares to get sprinters. Based on build and ancestry, Medley was another trotter-galloper. 1768: Mambrino Sr. (Mambrino I), by Engineer by Sampson by Blaze by Flying Childers, by the Darley “Arabian,” and out of a mare by Cade by the Godolphin horse. His tail female goes to Barb and Hobby. There are blanks in Mambrino I’s pedigree that certainly might be Norfolk Trotter mares, and the stallion’s head—of quality, but large and heavy—and his outstandin­g “bone” suggest this also and I take Mambrino I to be another early trotter-galloper. He marked 11 wins, including the Jockey Club Plate and King’s Plate at Newmarket in 1775, but his most important contributi­on to American horse breeding was in siring Messenger 1780. 1771: Shark, by Marske and out of a mare by Snap, who was a grandson of Flying Childers by the Darley “Arabian.” Shark’s tail female goes back to the Godolphin horse and quite a lot of Barb. My guess based on this and his conformati­on is that he was a trotter-galloper rather than an ambler-galloper. 1777: *Diomed, by Florizel by Herod and out of a mare tracing in sire line to Curwen’s Bay Barb. *Diomed’s tail female goes back in two lines to Old Bald Peg and to Turk. The winner of 19 of 37 starts including the very first Epsom Derby, he was nonetheles­s unpopular as a sire in England and was imported at the age of 21 in

1798 to Virginia, where he founded an American racing dynasty. *Diomed was without question an ambler-galloper, as was his most famous son, Sir Archy, whose name appears in pedigrees of Standardbr­eds, Saddlebred­s and Quarter Horses. 1780: Messenger, by Mambrino I and out of a mare by Turf by the most important Thoroughbr­ed source of endurance capability, Matchem. His tail female goes to both major fonts of speed, Old Bald Peg and Tregonwell’s Natural Barb Mare, as well as to the Godolphin horse. In England a passable racer, he was tried almost exclusivel­y over shorter distances of less than

2 ½ miles and then imported to the

U.S. in 1788 or 1789. In addition to his influence on the Standardbr­ed, Messenger also sired some good flattrack gallopers including Tippoo Saib, Potomac, and the mare Miller’s Damsel, who is the dam of American Eclipse. Messenger was a trotter-galloper.

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