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Stallion predominance
ARTICLE REPRINTED FROM PACEMAKER 1981 BY PETER WILLETT
The predominance of the great stallions
We have reprinted an article first produced in Pacemaker magazine, December 1981 written by the late Peter Willett explaining how the few truly great sires defy the most enormous odds. Over the next two issues of International Thoroughbred, Alan Porter will be picking up Willett's mantle to discuss how things have changed today with the influence of large stallion books and new developed research in to genetics and pedigrees
IT IS REMARKABLE how individual stallions are able to dominate whole areas of activity, even the huge thoroughbred populations of the final quarter of the 20th century. A case in point is the near monopoly of the leading places in the list of the 1981 firstseason sires’ list in the British Isles claimed by Northern Dancer sons, Be My Guest, The Minstrel and Far North of whom the latter pair, of course, are full-brothers.
Of these three eminently successful firstseason sires only Be My Guest, who stands at the Coolmore Stud in County Tipperary is stationed in the British Isles, though Be My Guest, like The Minstrel, Far North and Northern Dancer himself was bred in North America.
The odds against this kind of domination being realised are enormous, in purely numerical terms. The greatest number of foals by Northern Dancer born in a single year is 42, which, with more than 30,000 foals born in North America annually during most of his stud career means that he has never accounted for more than about 01.14 per cent of total foalings on that continent.
If the achievements of Northern Dancer as a sire of first-season sires are extraordinary, confounding all reasonable predictions, then it is true that the most potent stallions have been beating the odds, all throughout thoroughbred history, and thereby making the most essential contributions to the evolution of the breed.
Research by Valerie Bowden in Volume 38 of the General Stud Book, and described in her paper “Inbreeding in Thoroughbred horses” written in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Msc (Animal Breeding) at Edinburgh University revealed that Northern Dancer’s grandsire Nearco contributed 7.25 per cent of the genetic makeup of the thoroughbred in the British Isles, that Nearco’s sire Phalaris contributed 6.125 per cent and that Pharos’s sire Phalaris contributed 7.275 per cent, the highest contribution of any stallion coming within the scope of Miss Bowden’s research.
St. Simon held similar sway at the turn of the century. As I pointed out in a previous article (Pacemaker International, September 1981), 19 individual sons of St. Simon made 87 appearances in the list of the top 20 sires of winners in Britain.
However, Mr. E .J. C. Blackwood of Edinburgh, one of the most industrious researchers in thoroughbred history, has exhorted me not to overpraise St. Simon, but to direct my attention to the superior record of the Godolphin Arabian, who had no fewer than 30 individual sons in the top 20 sires of winners in the vital formative period of thoroughbred evolution in the middle of the 18th century.
The Godolphin Arabian, whose lifespan was from about 1724 to 1753, was one of the three celebrated founding fathers of the breed from whom all modern thoroughbred horses trace their descent in the male
As far as is known, none of this trio ever ran in a race. The story of the Godolphin Arabian’s life is encrusted with legends, none of which has been authenticated. One legend is that he was discovered in Paris pulling a water-cart.
Pick’s Turf Register, published 50 years after his death, stated that no pedigree was brought to England, because it was genuinely believed at the time that he had been stolen.
Modern research has attributed him to the Jilfan blood of the Yemen, and placed him in a batch of Arab horses, presented by the Bey of Tunis to the King of France. It seems that he was imported by Edward Coke of Longford Hall, and later became the property of Lord Dawson of Gogmagog, in Cambridgeshire.
The General Stud Book states that in 1731 the Arabian was teaser to the stallion Hobgoblin, and that when Hobgoblin refused to cover the mare, the Arabian was put on her. The produce of the meeting was the colt Lath, and when the meeting was repeated two years later, the produce was another colt, Cade.
The early volumes of the Stud Book were more generous with incidental information than later volumes and Volume 1 recorded that Roxanna died within a fortnight foaling Cade, who was reared with cow’s milk.
Despite her untimely death, Roxanna’s sons by the Godolphin Arabian achieved sufficient distinction.
Lath was acclaimed as one of the best horses to run at Newmarket in the first half of the 18th century, but covered few mares, except for those of his owner, the Duke of Devonshire, and made little mark is a stallion.
His brother Cade, on the other hand, was relatively unsuccessful on the racecourse, and gained his only victory in a King’s Plate at Newmarket, but he became a stallion of the most potent influence. He was leading sire of winners five times between 1752 and 1760, and his son Matchem was one of the greatest stallions in the second half of the century.
Regulus, the Godolphin Arabian son out of Grey Robinson by the Bald Galloway, combined the racing ability of Lath with a prepotency of Cade. Foaled in 1739, he was unbeaten and far superior to any horse of his day, and afterwards headed the list of sires of winners eight times.
He exerted a particularly strong influence through his daughters, who included the dam of Eclipse, the grand-dam of Highflyer, and the great grand-dam of Sir Peter.
Eclipse, Highflyer and Sir Peter were not only great racehorses, but also stallions who played distinctive roles in the transition of the thoroughbred from the slow-maturing, long-distance performer to the speedy, precocious racehorse of modern times.
Blank, one year younger than Regulus, was another son of the Godolphin Arabian who left an indelible mark on the evolution of the breed. Though unsuccessful on the racecourse, he became a leading sire of winners three times and was the maternal grandsire of many good horses, most notably Highflyer.
E.J.C. Blackwood’s meticulously compiled tables of the leading stallions of the 18th century show that the sons of the Godolphin Arabian were the most numerous in the upper reaches of the list of sires of winners, for 17 sons figured in the top 10 sires at one time and another.
The two most important sons of the Darley Arabian were the brothers Flying Childers, who was the leading sire in 1730 and 1736, and Bartlet’s Childers, who was the leading sire in 1742.
The Godolphin Arabian was a persuasive influence in the racehorse pedigree by the end of the 18th century.
IN 1803 PICK wrote in his Turf Register “Every superior horse of the present day partakes of his valuable blood”.
Highflyer provided an excellent example of the truth of this assertion. Although he was by Herod, a male line descendant of the first of the founding fathers the Byerly Turk, he was out of Rachel, a mare inbred to the Godolphin Arabian in the second and third removes of her pedigree.
Rachel was by one son of the Godolphin Arabian. Blank, and her dam was by another son, Regulus.
Highflyer, foaled in 1774, was never beaten. His last race as a five-year-old was the Kings Purse at Litchfield on September 14 when he started at 9-1 on to beat his two opponents in three heats of three miles each.
Although Highflyer was described as “lame and much out of condition”, he won easily. He then retired to start at Ely in Cambridge, at a fee of 15 guineas, though the fee was increased by stages to 50 guineas as evidence of a superlative breeding value accumulated. He was the founder of the fortunes of the Tattersall family.
Eclipse, who was out of Spilletta, a grand-daughter of the Godolphin Arabian, was “a great racehorse and played a distinctive role in the in the transition of the thoroughbred from the slow-maturing, long-distance performer to the speedy, precocious racehorse of modern times”
Highflyer was leading sire of winners a record 12 times – twice more than his son Sir Peter, and three times more than St. Simon.
He sired three winners of the Derby (Noble, Sir Peter and Skyscraper), four winners of the St Leger (Omphale, Cowslip, Spadille and Young Flora), and one winner of the Oaks (Volante).
The 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas were not founded in time to be contested by his progeny, who won a total of 470 races and £170,407. He was leading sire every year except one from 1785 to 1798.
On the other hand, it is necessary, in order to see the achievements of stallions from different eras in perspective, to appreciate that Highflyer was operating in a thoroughbred population that was a minute in comparison with the days of Northern Dancer or even St. Simon, so that a pretty potent stallion would tend to attain a degree of dominance, beyond the reach of stallions in larger populations.
Although Highflyer was described as “lame and much out of condition”, he won easily. He then retired to stud at Ely in Cambridge, at a fee of 15 guineas, though the fee was increased by stages to 50 guineas as evidence of a superlative breeding value accumulated. He was the founder of the fortunes of the Tattersall family.
The Darley Arabian
IN 1787 when Highflyer’s progeny Sir Peter and Spadille won the Derby and the St Leger respectively only 79 individual stallions sired winners, whereas in 1900, when St. Simon’s progeny Diamond Jubilee (winner of the Triple Crown), Winiferda and La Roche monopolised victory in the five Classic races, no fewer than 374 individual stallions sired at least one winner each in Great Britain, and were in competition with St. Simon.
The contrast becomes even more striking when the number of foals by influential stallions is expressed a percentage of total foalings.
The Darley Arabian
We have seen that Northern Dancer has accounted for no more than 0.14 per cent of the total Northern American foalings in any season since he went to stud.
In 1897, the year Diamond Jubilee, Winifreda and La Roche were born, St. Simon accounted for 32 or 0.9 per cent of the 3,358 foals registered in the General Stud Book.
Clearly, neither Highflyer nor his ancestor the Godolphin Arabian, had anything like the numerical opposition to their supremacy faced by great stallions of later stages of the thoroughbred evolution.
Although Highflyer owed a tremendous genetic debt to the Godolphin Arabian, the male line of the Godolphin has dwindled in importance steadily since the days of Matchem, who was leading sire for three years in succession beginning in 1772, and Matchem’s grandson Trumpator, who was leading sire in 1803.
In the 20th century, the line has survived tenaciously though the influence of two great stallions, Hurry On in Britain, and Man O’War in North America. They were both direct descendants of Matchem.
The most successful stallion now representing either of those branches is the Florida-based In Reality, who is inbred to Man O’War’s son War Relic in the third remove.
In Reality is the sire of last year [1980] 2,000 Guineas and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Known Fact, who is about to take up stud duties in England [in 1981].
The male line of the Byerly Turk and Highflyer’s son Herod may have had somewhat brighter prospects of survival, though it is no longer flourishing to anything like the extent it was in the early and middle years of the 20th century, when it was sustained by potent sires like The Tetrarch, Tourbillon and Djebel.
The best representative that the Byerly Turk line has had in recent years was Luthier, but he died in France last September and it remains to be seen whether he has left a son who will be good enough to carry on the dynasty.
The overwhelming majority of modern thoroughbreds trace their descent in the male line from the Darley Arabian entirely through his great, great grandson Eclipse, a contemporary of Matchem, Herod and Highflyer.
We have seen that the Darley Arabian was thinly represented in comparison with the Godolphin through his sons in the top echelon of sires of winners. Spiletta, the dam of Eclipse, was by the Godolphin Arabian son Regulus, one of the most potent of the 18th century sires.
This fact is a clue to the falsity of the method of pedigree analysis, which puts emphasis on the direct male line.
Modern methods of analysis have necessitated a fundamental reassessment of the relative importance of the three founding fathers.
Research by Professor E.P. Cunningham at the Irish Department of Genetics in 1978 confirmed the importance of the Darley Arabian and the Byerly Turk, who were second and fourth in the ranking list of genetic contributors to the present thoroughbred population with percentages of 7.5 and 4.8 per cent respectively.
But the Godolphin Arabian towered over them in first place, having contributed 14.6 per cent of the genetic makeup of the current breed of racehorses.
The words of Pick remain as true as they were when they were first written nearly two centuries ago: “Every superior was of the present day partakes of his valuable blood”.
