#1
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origins of the breed
If you believe baseball was invented in Cooperstown, you will believe that only three stallions are the entire basis of the thoroughbred.
"These were not the only three stallions to originally contribute towards the foundation of the breed, however, and according to calculations made by Joeseph Osbourne in 1881, at lest 475 other stallions, all of them or Oriental origin, made up the original contribution, although they failed to secure a descendancy in the direct male line capable of continuing to the present day. Only 40 of the original 100 broodmares originally entered in the stud book have managed to keep their female line active through their descendents." Horses of the World by M Bongianni |
#2
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Obviously there was input from other stallions as all those mares that were bred to the foundation sires had sires of their own. The point is that after a very few generations those 3 sires had managed to wrest such a position of superiority over all other running horse stallions that other sirelines simply fell away.
What occurred was the confluence of three stallions at about the same time in about the same place who not only were so influential but whose blood crossed so well (the ultimate nicking combinations) as to establish a breed. Consider what might have happened (not not happened, I guess) if the Eclipse/Matchem cross had been an utter flop or if sons of Eclipse bred to Herod mares had typically produced wobblers.
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RIP Monroe. |
#3
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I remembered reading an old column by the great old racing writer 'Salvator' from the 1920's on this subject. I went to the DRF Archives to find it. It's brutally long.
For whatever reason -- links never seem to work from that site -- but if you'd like to do a search for it, it opens like this... It's hard to read -- but this cut was great stuff... He later profiles the three stallions. Here is the Godolphin Arabian: Quote:
Here is the Darley Arabian: Quote:
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