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Peytona
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Date Posted: 14:50:04 02/23/04 Mon
In reply to:
Peytrona
's message, "[A Horse]" on 14:48:38 02/23/04 Mon
Glencoe's History: Glencoe was one of the earliest stallions imported into the U.S. to have a long-lasting impact on thoroughbred bloodlines. Although no important male line descendants are extant today, he did found a male dynasty that lasted into the early decades of the Twentieth Century--Hindoo, Hanover, and Hamburg were all outstanding racehorses and sires in the U.S., each in turn producing good sons and daughters that helped shape today's thoroughbred.
His daughters catapulted him to fame in his own time as a broodmare sire. First among them was Pocahontas, bred in England, who produced the amazing trio of sons, Rataplan, King Tom and Stockwell -- "the Emperor of Stallions" -- whose blood courses through so many great thoroughbreds, past and present. In America he sired, among others, Reel, one of that country's most influential broodmares.
Glencoe was bred by George Child-Villiers, the fifth Earl of Jersey, whose important stud was located at Middleton Stoney in Oxfordshire. The Earl's purchase from the Duke of Grafton of Web (1808, by Waxy), the sister of those two pillars of the studbook, Whisker and Whalebone, laid the foundation of a great branch of Family 1, nurtured at Middleton Stoney. Web had two good racing sons for the Earl -- Middleton, who won the 1825 Epsom Derby, and Glenartney, also a good runner who would have won the Derby two years later, if he had not been pulled. She also had two influential daughters, bred in the Jersey stud, who later produced classic winning offspring at Middleton Stoney.
Web's daughter Filagree (1815) produced 1,000 Guineas and Epsom Oaks winner Cobweb, later the dam of the top race horse and Derby winner Bay Middleton, as well as two other classic winners. Filagree also bred 1,000 Guineas winner Charlotte West and 2,000 Guineas winner Riddlesworth. Other daughters also produced classic winners, and from Filagree descend such horses as Queen Bertha and La Troienne.
Web also produced the chestnut filly Trampoline, in 1825, for the Earl. She was by the top four-miler, Tramp, whose offspring included three classic winners and two winners of the Whip. Trampoline was a fair race filly, who placed second in the 1,000 Guineas, and won a race for three year old fillies at Newmarket. She was retired to the stud in 1829, and produced her first foal, Glenmore, by Phantom, in 1830.
Trampoline's second foal, Glencoe, dropped in 1831, was by Sultan, a stallion Lord Jersey used to good effect more than once on Web's daughters and grandaughters to produce classic winners (see the chart). Sultan, a flashy red bay, had a refined head, a longish back, great depth through the girth, and a powerful hind-end, all of which he passed on to his chestnut son, Glencoe. He was a good and game weight carrier, and was sound enough to run to the age of eight. He won the July Stakes at age 2, the Trial Stakes at Newmarket twice, and a number of other races and matches at Newmarket during his long career. Retired to the Marquis of Exeter's stud at Burleigh, he was leading sire in Great Britain for six consecutive years, 1832-37, bolstered by such classic winning sons and daughters as Bay Middleton, Achmet, Green Mantle, Galata, Augustus, Ibrahim, and Destiny, and Glencoe. Through her daughter, Glencairne (1838), also by Sultan, Trampoline was ancestress of enough good stakes winners to be allotted her own branch of Family 1 (Family 1 - t). The branch has been prolific, and includes such horses as brothers Adalbert (1863, Henckel-Rennen, Union-Rennen) and Gorgo (1865, Union-Rennen), both by Ethelbert; Cherimoya (1908, Epsom Oaks) and her grandson Cameronian (1928, Epsom Derby and 2,000 Guineas); Brie (1875, French Oaks) and her daughter, Brisk (1891, French Oaks); the Australian racehorse and sire Bernborough (1939) by Emborough; The Oak (1901, Italian Derby); the great stayer and leading sire Alycidon (1945); the good American stakes winners Easy Goer (1986) and Sea Hero (1990), and many more.
Glencoe on the Dirt Glencoe proved to be a youngster of great speed and the "rare Tramp [his dam's sire] staying power." He was born with a long, hollow back, which sank even further in his age; the turf recorder Henry Hall Dixon (The Druid) said his most frequent jockey, the top crack Jem Robinson "...used to look like a man seated in a valley." He was 15.1-3/4 hands at maturity, his coat a rich red chestnut. He had a lovely moulded neck, and inherited the powerful quarters and deep girth of his sire, Sultan. Glencoe was not started until the age of three. He was put into the hands of the trainer, James "Tiny" Edwards, who schooled many of his famous sire's outstanding offspring, and who later told The Druid that of them all, he "...loved Glencoe best." Edwards was, and still is, the only trainer to win four successive 2,000 Guineas, all four horses bred by the Earl of Jersey and sired by Sultan: Glencoe, in 1834, was the first of these. Glencoe made his debut in the second Riddlesworth Stakes for three year olds at Newmarket Craven in 1834, which he won in heavy footing over three others in a canter: the purse was £1400. The next day he was sent out in a sweeptstakes of 100 sovereigns against one of the other two top colts of his generation, the big, fast, carthorse-like Plenipotentiary. Robinson was told to wear "Plenipo" down with Glencoe's speed. Robinson later reported, "I came the first half mile as hard as I could lick, but, on looking round, I saw the great fat bullock cantering by my side, Conolly [Plenipo's jockey] at the same time exclaiming, 'I'm here, Master Jemmy, only waiting till I'm wanted.'" Glencoe, spent, was beaten by four lengths. At the first spring meeting at Newmarket he won the Dessert Stakes in a canter, and followed that by winning the 2,000 Guineas, valued that year at 1750 sovereigns, beating, among others, Viator, the winner of the first Riddlesworth earlier in the spring, and two horses who had been good juveniles, Flatterer, who had won the Grand Duke Michael Stakes, and Bentley, winner of the Clearwell and Criterion Stakes. He then ran third, a half-length out of second, to Plenipotentiary and Shillelah -- whom he later soundly beat -- in the Epsom Derby. At Ascot, Glencoe was withdrawn from the St. James' Palace Stakes to allow Plenipo a walk-over. The next day Glencoe had a walk-over for the Royal Stakes. Glencoe won the rest of his races that season. In the Goodwood Cup, he met his elders for the first time, including The Saddler (Doncaster Cup winner), Rockingham (Doncaster St. Leger winner), and St. Giles (Derby winner). He and the filly Marpessa, who later was bred to him to produce Pocahontas, received weight from all these horses. St. Giles, Famine, and Marpessa led early, overtaken by the valiant old trooper Colwick and Glencoe; the latter, "light as a feather and full of running," won "in the commonest of canters" by four lengths. Next he won the Racing Stakes, beating three horses, and then at Newmarket Second October won the Garden Stakes, beating the four year old Glaucus and Colwick by four lengths. In his second season, with Plenipotentiary broken down and permanently retired after the Newmarket spring meeting, Glencoe won the 2-1/2 mile Ascot Gold Cup -- his only race that year -- in a thrilling run with a field of eight. In it, the early pacesetter, Jersey's filly Misnomer, who was Glencoe's "rabbit" for the running, took a four length lead, setting a fast pace. Glencoe was fourth to the Swinley Post, and then made his move, soon passing Misnomer, "skimming over the sod as light and graceful as the dolphin shoots away from the shark." At the betting stand Bran, a fairly decent colt who had won the York St. Leger and placed second in the Doncaster St. Leger, gamely challenged Glencoe, but "Robinson, mute and motionless as a statue, just slightly slackened his hold on Glencoe's head, and sent him in an easy winner."
In July, Jersey challenged for The Whip with Glencoe, and obtained it with no responses. Glencoe was then retired from racing. The London Sporting Magazine, at the end of his three year old season had exclaimed, "...from his late performances he has shown himself the best horse in the world. Where is there one to be found to meet him at weight for age? Not in England, assuredly." And Glencoe did not, in fact, stay in England long; his destiny as a thoroughbred progenitor lay largely on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Glencoe in the Stud In America, Irish-born James Jackson (1782), who had emigrated to the U.S. after the turn of the century, built a substantial business in Nashville, and later New Orleans. He had a strong interest in racing and livestock in general, and in 1819 formed a land company with his business associates, purchasing vast amounts of acreage in northern Alabama. He moved his residence to his newly built plantation, Forks of Cypress there in 1821, and later was active in the Alabama State Legislature, both as a representative and then later as president of the State Senate. In 1814, Jackson had had an interest, and later controlling ownership of the good stallion Pacolet, and subsequently imported several "bred" horses from England, the first notable one being Leviathan, in 1830, purchased for Jackson by Richard Tattersall of Weatherbys, who became the five-time leading sire in America. Leviathan did not stand at Forks of Cypress, but rather at Nashville, in Tennessee, at the farm of Jackson's close racing associate, Colonel George Elliott. At the end of 1835, Jackson asked Tattersall to try and obtain either Plenipotentiary, the older retired Epsom Derby winner Priam, or Glencoe for him. At the time, Plenipo and Priam were "not to be had for money," although two years later Priam, in fact, was sold to the American partnership Merritt & Co. and sent to the U.S. Glencoe was obtained for Jackson for $10,000 in January of 1836, with the proviso that Jersey have the free breeding of three mares to him. Glencoe spent his first year at stud at Tattersall's Dawley Wall Farm, near Uxbridge, where he covered not only the three Jersey mares, but forty other outside mares. At the end of the 1836 breeding season, Glencoe was shipped to the U.S., arriving in New York to universal admiration, which spread further as he was taken south to Forks of Cypress.
One of the mares who came to Glencoe's court that spring in England was Marpessa, the game filly he had bested twice on the turf, but who had, despite being a roarer, won and placed in some good races in top company, including the Nursery Stakes at Newmarket. In 1837 she produced the bay filly Pocahontas, who ran between the ages of 2 and 4, and later retired to become one of the most influential broodmares in the history of the thoroughbred (Family 3 - n). Glencoe sired twenty-three foals that lived to maturity in England. In addition to Pocahontas, some of his good offspring there included Ascot Stakes winner Darkness, who in the stud became tail-female ancestress of the French sire Plutus; an unnamed filly out of Frolicksome, who was grandam of the influential sire,Young Melbourne, and an unnamed filly out of Alea, tail-female to Petrarch, a good sire and stakes winner.
Installed at Forks of Cypress in Alabama, Glencoe was bred in the fall of 1836 to two mares who produced two late foals in 1837. He stood in Alabama for seven years at a fee of $100, and in that time sired 132 foals. Jackson died in 1840; Glencoe stayed in Alabama until 1844, when he was sent by the Jackson estate executors, James and Thomas Kirkman Jr., to Nashville, Tennessee, where he stood for $50 until 1848, when he was sold, now age 17, to W.F. Harper of Midway, Kentucky, for $3,000. His fee was raised to $100 when he was 24 years old, in 1855, the first of two years where he stood beside Lexington at Harper's Nantura Stud. Twenty-one live foals were born from his 1855 covers, and fifteen the following year. In the summer of 1857, age 26, he was sold to Alexander Keene Richards, who owned Blue Grass Park in Georgetown, Kentucky. Richards owned Glencoe's famous racing daughter, Peytona, who he bred to his imported -- from the Near East -- Arabian stallions. He later purchased and imported Australian, son of the first English Triple Crown winner West Australian, who became an influential sire in the U.S., and owned the important sires Knight of St. George and War Dance, the latter the last foal of the great mare Reel. Richards commissioned Edward Troye to paint Glencoe soon after his purchase, "a truthful portrait...with every wrinkle and spot of age," but in all his grace as a long-lived eminent racehorse. At the time, Richards later reported, Glencoe was in perfect health. Three weeks later, August 25, he died "from a very violent attack of lung fever." The British press reported: "With all his ancient pluck, he stood up bravely against spasmodic colic and lung-fever, for ten days, and died quite exhausted, from bleeding at the nose." He was buried at the Richards farm, later joined by Peytona, who died foaling in 1864. Turf historian John Hervey calculated Glencoe sired 481 foals in his twenty-two years at stud in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, based on information compiled from the American Stud Book and racing calendars of the day. He pointed out that during the economic depression of 1844 - 48, where the records show only 54 foals by Glencoe, it is likely he got many more youngsters who went unrecorded and others that were never raced or bred. A number who were recorded, from his last crops in Kentucky, were young horses when the Civil War erupted, and their fates are unknown. In 1862, A. Keene Richards presented a son of Glencoe to Confederate raider Col. John Hunt Morgan: "...he was not only a strong, but a big horse. He had the thoroughbred points in a marked degree, but in robust proportions....Big as he was, he was yet extremely nimble and sure-footed." This horse had been used as a model for the mount in a portrait of General Winfield Scott, painted by Edward Troye in the 1850s at Richards' farm. Glencoe topped the leading sires list eight times in the 1840s and '50s. With his looks and performance record, he got the best mares of his era, both native and imported. The value of the races won by his offspring, compared with leading sires of other decades, is somewhat skewed by the fact that the depression of the 1840s, when most of his youngsters were of racing age, affected both the number of racing opportunities and the size of the purses. He passed on his staying ability to his youngsters, and they dominated three and four mile racing, which was, by the 1840s, declining in popularity. In America, he sired more than twice as many recorded fillies as he did colts, and within his lifetime, it was recognized that his daughters were superior, both on the track and in the breeding shed, to his sons.
Of his sons, Pryor ("Prior" in the American Stud Book), foaled in 1852, out of Gipsey, by American Eclipse, was considered the best runner. Bred and owned by Richard Ten Broeck, he ran well in the U.S., his first outing at the Metairie Course in New Orleans, where he won a race for three year olds over a mile, then placed second and third to a Voucher filly, Minnow in two races, finally winning again at Metairie in the fall in two-mile heats. At age 4, he ran against Le Roi, whom he beat handily at the Pharsalia Course at Natchez, Tennessee. Three days later he was matched against the outstanding Reel son (and thus Glencoe's grandson), Lecomte, at Pharsalia, over four miles. In this race, a huge upset, he ran laying back, but within striking distance, and then surged ahead in the last half mile to win the first heat, and the second heat ran in much the same manner, easily besting the tiring Lecomte. Pryor was shipped to England to race, along with Ten Broeck's great race mare Prioress (1853, by imported Sovereign) and her half-brother, Starke (1855, by Wagner), both of them out of Glencoe's daughter, Reel. Thus, three representatives of Glencoe returned to his native country to race. While Prioress won there, winning the Cesarewitch and other stakes races, and Starke won the Goodwood Cup, the Goodwood Stakes and other races, Pryor was not successful, and he died there without siring anything of note. Another Glencoe son, Star Davis (1849, out of Margaret Wood by Priam) was a fair racehorse and later got Day Star, who beat Himyar in the Kentucky Derby.
Vandal and Virgil The son who was to have the most impact in the breeding shed was Vandal (1850), who won races at three mile distances, including the Jockey Club purse at Lexington in 1855, where he defeated another son of Glencoe, Frankfort. Out of a mare by Tranby, and a half-brother to Levity -- later a great producer -- and the gelded Alaric, he was bred by R.A. Alexander, who inherited Woodburn Farm in Kentucky, and turned it into a significant thoroughbred nursery and racing stable. Vandal was a dark bay, and he inherited Glencoe's hollow back. He stood in Kentucky, where he got some good daughters, among them Ella D. (1857), later dam of Bourbon Belle (dam of Hanover), and the good race mare Mollie Jackson (1856), "the best mare of any day." The latter produced Monday, who sired Mollie McCarthy and Joe Hooker in California, and was also dam of Sue Morrissey (Fannie Ludlow) who was second dam of Foxhall. In 1862 he was ranked second to Lexington on the leading sires list. At the age of 19 he was sold by F.T. Kinkead of Kentucky to General William G. Harding, whose Tennessee stud farm, Belle Meade, would later be home to imported Bonnie Scotland. In his final two years with Harding, he got several good racehorses, before his death in 1872, the best probably being his daughter Vandalite (1871), who was the U.S. champion three-year old of 1874. Vandal also sired the dark bay Virgil, in 1864, out of Hymenia, who was by imported Yorkshire. Virgil was a moderately successful racehorse, who could win up to a mile, and later had some success over fences. Under-appreciated, he was later trained as a buggy horse, and only had an opportunity with some good mares when his owner, Milton H. Sanford, decided to have them covered, rather than lose a season, after his premier stallion at his Preakness Stud in Kentucky, Baywood, fell ill. From just a few mares, Virgil produced some good runners, particularly Vagrant, the best two year old of his generation. After that, Virgil's opportunities at stud dramatically increased, and after he passed to the ownership of Daniel Swigert, who purchased the Preakness Stud, renaming it Elmendorf, he rose to the top of the leading sires list in 1885. Virgil sired Preakness Stakes winner Vanguard, Kentucky Derby winner and fair sire Ben Ali, the champion two year old of 1886, Tremont, and Hindoo, the most noted racehorse of his day, who later continued the revitalization of the Glencoe sire line with his own son, Hanover. Vandal's son, Voltigeur (1872), sired Princeton, a three-time winner of the challenging Maryland Hunt Cup. Voltigeur also got Nora M., the dam of the foundation Quarter Horse sire Peter McCue (1895). Nora M. was out of the mare Kitty Clyde, by another Glencoe son, Star Davis. Another Vandal son, Versailles (1866), was grandsire of yet another three-time Maryland Hunt Cup winner, Garry Owen.
American Daughters Glencoe was a remarkable broodmare sire, and many of his fillies were top racehorses as well. First among them was Reel, a grey filly of 1838 from the imported mare Galopade. She was undefeated at a mile, two miles and four miles, until her last race at age 5, when she took a bad step running down the colt, George Martin. In the stud, she produced ten first class racehorses, including Lecomte, who beat Lexington; Prioress, who set course records in the U.S. and then won in England; and Starke, who won several major races in England. Her son, War Dance, became an outstanding sire, and her daughters established a sturdy line of Family 23, leading to such champions as Two Lea, Tim Tam, and Winning Colors. Reel is commonly considered the best American broodmare of the 19th century
Novice, out of Chloe Anderson by Rodolph, and bred by R.A. Alexander, at Woodburn Farm in Kentucky, won some races at age 3. As a broodmare in the Woodburn stud, her best son was Norfolk, by Lexington, foaled in 1861. He was purchased for $15,001.00 by Theodore Winters, who made his money in western mining, and went east to purchase the best stallion prospect he could find. Winters ran Norfolk several times in the east to prove his outstanding abilities as a racehorse, and then shipped him by private rail car to his stock farm in northern California, where he ran several races, and then was retired to become a top stallion, despite his limited opportunities. Through his son, Emperor of Norfolk, he was grandsire of Rey del Caredas, who was sent to England to run under the name of Americus, thus ensuring one group of Lexington's descendants -- later encompassing such horses as Nasrullah and Tudor Minstrel -- a place in the General Stud Book, when most others were refused after the Jersey Act of 1913.
Peytona was bred by James Jackson at Forks of Cypress, foaled in 1839, shortly before his death, and she was, perhaps the ultimate reflection of his breeding success, her dam being Young Giantess, by Jackson's first significant import, Trumpator. Peytona won $35,000 in the richest event in American racing to that date, the Peyton Stakes, at age 3. She was subsequently matched against Fashion, the great race mare of the North, in a race over the Union Course on Long Island, New York, which she won. Next to Reel and Peytona, Glencoe's best racing daughter was Charmer, foaled in 1844 out of the Tennessee race mare Betsey Malone, by Stockholder. One of the Alabama-bred foals, she ran at the age of three unsuccessfully in three races. Sold to W.N. Rogers, at age four she came into her own, defeating, that year, the good horse Revenue in a four mile match. She ran until the age of ten on courses from Cincinnati to New Orleans, winning 27 races of her 40 starts, and she was never beaten in her sixteen starts over three miles. One of her most famous races was a race at Metairie Course, a purse of $700 to be run in four mile heats. She carried the heaviest weight, 115 pounds, against her opponents. She lost the first two heats to the Glencoe gelding Rigadoon, and to Louis d'Or, by Sarpedon. In the third heat, Rigadoon having fallen lame in the second, she dead-heated with Louis d'Or. In the fourth, she bested the exhausted colt, and the fifth heat was a walk-over for her. The four contested heats were the fastest ever recorded to that time. Three days earlier, she had won a $500 purse over three miles, setting a new U.S. record for that distance. That year she also won a $1000 Jockey Club purse for four-mile heats at Charleston, and another for $600 over two miles a few days later. She retired to the farm of William Brunton in Iowa, for whom she produced five foals. She was second dam, through daughter Maggie Mitchell, of sisters Marian and Roxaline, both bred in Illinois, and both by Malcolm. Marian was purchased by Theodore Winters, and became the foundation mare of his California farm, producing Emperor of Norfolk, El Rio Rey, the great race mare Yo Tambien, and five other stakes winners. Roxaline was sent to Canada, where she produced winners of 120 races. Charmer's full sister, Jenny Lind, was also a good race mare. Florine (1854, out of Melody by Medoc), produced the brown race mare Idlewild (1859), by Lexington, and her sister Aerolite (1862). Idlewild won six of her eight races at age 3, including a Purse for All Ages stakes in three straight mile heats at Woodlawn Course. At age 4, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Idlewild's opportunities were limited, but she won all three of her races in Kentucky, and at age 5, she won two races, and then lost to a colt by imported Sovereign. Shipped north, she won four races, her last a four mile dash for all ages at Centreville Course, beating Jerome Edgar and Dangerous. Retired to Woodburn stud in Kentucky, she was bred only to imported Australian; her son, Wildidle (1870), by imported Australian, was a stakes winner in Kentucky and California, who later got the Pacific Derby winner Flambeau for Leland Stanford. Aerolite became the dam of top racehorses and brothers Fellowcraft, whose daughter was dam of champion and leading sire Hamburg; Miser; and champion Spendthrift, and through the latter ancestress of Fair Play. The Glencoe daughter Magnolia (1841, out of Myrtle by Mameluke) was dam of the good racing brothers Daniel Boone (1856) and Kentucky (1861), both by Lexington, and of the good race mare Skedaddle by imported Yorkshire, later dam of Saucebox, Slyboots, and other winners. His daughter Topaz (1844, out of Emerald by Leviathan) produced the good race horses and later sires, Waterloo, Austerlitz and Wagram, and Lodi, who ran on the west coast. Fanny King (1841, out of Mary Smith by Sir Richard) produced Brown Dick (1850, by Margrave), a good racehorse in his time, whose record for three-mile heats run in 1856 stood for nine years. Glencoe sired at least 317 fillies, and many bred on, now interwoven into the pedigrees of thoroughbreds today. Many have noted that Lexington was helped to dominance of the sire lists for so many years by Glencoe, on whose daughters he was so frequently and successfully crossed. In like respect, Glencoe's status as leading sire for eight years was well-supported by the daughters of his first owner's -- James Jackson -- earlier imported stallion, Trumpator.
Byerley Turk History(Sire's Side): The story of the Byerley Turk begins at the seige of Buda in Hungary in 1688, when a fine brown charger was taken from a captured Turkish officer by Captain Robert Byerley of the Sixth Dragoon Guards under King William III of Orange. The horse was believed to be about eight years old at the time, placing his year of birth at around 1679. The stallion served as Byerley's war horse when he was dispatched to Ireland in 1689 during King William's War. In 1690, public records show a race meeting was held in the spring at Down Royal in Northern Ireland, at which the top prize, the Silver Bell, was won by Captain Byerley's charger. Later that same year, the stallion was used during the Battle of the Boyne, July 12, 1690, versus the forces of King James II. [His biography up to this point closely parallels that of the Lister Turk, also captured at the seige of Buda and taken to Ireland to serve in the Battle of the Boyne.]
The Byerley Turk first entered stud in England, at the family seat at Middridge Grange, County Durham and later stood at Byerley's Goldsborough Hall, near Knaresborough, in Yorkshire. It is said that he covered few "bred" mares during either period of his stud career, which makes the results even more remarkable. He was known to be at stud as late as 1701, the year he sired Basto (foaled in 1702). It's possible that his remains are buried somewhere on the Goldsborough estate.
Robert Byerley was born in 1660, a son of Col. Anthony Byerley of Middridge Grange, a cavalry officer under Charles I, his unit known as "Byerley's Bulldogs." Robert Byerley rose through the ranks to Captain and was made Colonel in 1688. He married Mary, a grandniece of Philip (4th) Lord Wharton, also a prominent horse breeder of the time. Byerley later removed from Middridge Grange to Goldsborough Hall, and died in May 1714, to be buried at Goldsborough. The Goldsborough estate was sold to the Lascelles family around 1766, upon the death of Elizabeth Byerley.
As his portrait by Wootton shows, the Byerley Turk was a unmarked, dark brown horse with a decidedly Arabian appearance, despite his title as a "Turk". He was very prepotent, and many of his offspring are noted to have been brown or black like himself.
The most important racing son of the Byerley Turk was Basto, a dark bay colt bred by Sir William Ramsden, whose also bred the famous Byerley Turk mare, founder of family #1. Basto was a very good stallion and was later sold to the Duke of Devonshire, in whose ownership he died in 1723, at Chatsworth in Derbyshire. Wootton's portrait of Basto shows a nearly black horse with no white markings, similar in appearance to his own sire. Basto sired Soreheels and the important sister to Soreheels (dam of Snip, Blacklegs, etc.), the foundation mare Old Ebony (family #5), Brown Betty, Old Coquette, and a sister to Coquette among his several progeny in the GSB.
But the Byerley Turk's most influential son was Jigg, which the General Stud Book describes as a "middling" horse who was covering country mares on a travelling basis in Lincolnshire until his son Partner began to sweep all before him as a six-year-old. Partner, "a capital horse", was a tremendous runner and extremely influential sire, although it's Partner's son Tartar, actually one of his lesser efforts, that carries the sireline into the future. Tartar sired Herod.
Jigg's other progeny included Shock, Saucebox, and Robinson Crusoe (sire of Bucephalus), in addition to the dams of Coneyskins (an important early sire), Heneage's Whitenose, Heneage's Jigg, Bolton Patriot, Whimsey, and Brisk.
The Byerley Turk also sired Bristol's (or Mostyn's) Grasshopper, sire of Golden Locks, Look-at-me-Lads, the dam of Gentleman, and her sister. Another son, the Duke of Rutland's Black Hearty sired the great racemare Bonny Black, considered the best runner of her age. Other good runners by the Byerley Turk include Sprite, Archer, Lord Godolphin's Byerley Gelding, Halloway's Jigg and Knightley's Mare.
Byerley Turk mares became jewels of great price. Two of his daughters have been determined to be taproot mares for the breed. First was the daughter of the Taffolet Barb mare (three generations descended from Tregonwell's Natural Barb Mare, family #1).
Another Byerley Turk daughter known as "Dam of the Two True Blues" was designated founder of family #3. She was bred by Mr. Bowes of Streatleam, Co. Durham, a stud only ten miles from Middridge Grange, and so was foaled in the early part of the Byerley Turk's career. This mare's dam was unknown, and it has been speculated that these two daughters of the Byerley Turk are one and the same, but this can't be proven.
Other mares sired by the Byerley Turk include the only daughter of the mare by Bustler, founder of family #8, and the only daughter of another mare by Bustler, founder of family #35. He also sired the dams of Bulle Rock (allegedly the first "bred" stallion imported into Virginia), Smales' Childers, Fortune (also imported into the U.S.), the Farmer Mare, and The Wharton Mare.
Godolphin Arabian History(From Dam's Lines): Few horses have as much legend associated with them as does the Godolpin Arabian, but little evidence can corroborate the stories of him being found pulling a water cart in the streets of Paris, or being used as a teaser, or the dramatic stallion battle with Hobgoblin over the lovely, but fickle, mare Roxana.
The facts regarding his origin are few. He was imported from France in 1729 by Mr. Edward Coke, a gentleman with personal connections in France, especially with the Duke of Lorraine. The Duke of Lorraine, later Emperor Francis I of Germany, also figures in the history of the Belgrade Turk. Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, brother-in-law of Edward Coke, purchased the Belgrade Turk from the Duke and brought him to England. It can be presumed that Coke acquired the Godolphin Arabian via the French court, possibly from the Duke himself.
The stallion was probably one of several presented as tribute to the King of France by the Bey of Tunis. While in France he was described by Vicomte de Manty, who said his name was Shami, that he was beautifully-made although "half starved", with a headstrong temperament that made him unloved among the barn staff. It's very likely that he was in poor physical condition following his voyage from Tunis to the court of the French king, but it's unlikely that he ever was reduced to pulling a water cart in Paris.
Whatever his history, Mr. Coke brought the Arabian to England and stood him at his recently purchased Longford Hall in Derbyshire; in Coke's stud book he is referred to as "ye Arabian." The official story of the Arabian, later known as Lord Godolphin's, begins in 1731, when he covered Mr. Coke's Roxana, (ch.f. 1718) by the Bald Galloway, who was bred by Sir William Strickland. The following spring, Roxana foaled a bay colt by the Arabian, named Lath, who was said to be "a very elegant and beautiful horse," and who was later sold to the Duke of Devonshire.
Coke died in August, 1733 at the young age of 32. In his will, he left his small group of mares and foals, including Roxana and Lath, to a personal friend and fellow horseman, Francis, the second Earl of Godolphin, son of the controversial figure, Sidney, the first Earl. His stallions, including the Arabian, Whitefoot, and Hobgoblin, were left to another friend, Roger Williams. In 1733, the Earl acquired the Arabian from Williams, which is how the horse became known as the Godolphin Arabian. He was moved to the Earl's stud near Babraham in the Gog Magog Hills in Cambridgeshire, not far from the racing town of Newmarket. Lord Godolphin's mansion lay within the boundaries of the Iron Age fort known as Wandlebury Ring. The mansion was leveled in 1956, but the stables and other buildings remain on site.
Lath was considered to be the best racehorse of his day, and the best since Flying Childers. He was only a moderately successful stallion for the Duke of Devonshire, and his most influential offspring were generally mares out of daughters of Flying Childers, who also stood at Chatsworth, including Brown Betty, Gipsy, and several mares named on a theme: Crazy, Ancaster Crazy, Devonshire Crazy, and a sister to Crazy.
Lath was outstanding, but the Godolphin Arabian sired an even better one in Lord Chedworth's Regulus (b.c. 1739) out of Grey Robinson by Bald Galloway, who was undefeated in his racing career, including seven King's Plates won as a six-year-old. Regulus was an important sire, his progeny included Fearnought, sent to America and one of the earliest leading sires of runners in the colonies. Other sons included South, Prophet, Brutus, Chesnut Ranger, and Jalap (considered a foundation sire of the Cleveland Bay breed). Without a doubt, Regulus' most important daughter was Spiletta, dam of Eclipse.
The most important son of the Godolphin Arabian in the grand scheme of things, however, was Cade (b.c. 1734), a full brother to Lath. The General Stud Book notes that Cade's dam, Roxana, "died in 1734, within a fortnight after foaling; the produce was reared with cow's milk." Cade was much inferior to Lath as a runner, but vastly superior as a sire, and it is through Cade that the male line continues down to the present time, through Cade's great son Matchem. Cade also sired the important American stallion imported Wildair, besides Bandy, Changeling, Young Cade, Warren's Sportsman, Silvio, Northumberland, and many important broodmares including Kitty Fisher, Naylor, Miss Meredith, and several unnamed daughters.
Another extremely influential son of the Godolphin Arabian was Blank (b.c. 1740), out of the Little Hartley Mare by Bartlett's Childers. Blank sired Chrysolite, Pacolet, Centinel, Paymaster, Tatler, Fallower, and counted among his daughters the dam of the great runner and sire Highflyer, and the Duke of Granfton's mare Julia. Blank had a full brother named Janus (b.c. 1738), noted as the sire of imported (Old) Janus, who was a tremendous sire of quarter mile runners in colonial America.
Other important sons of the Godolphin Arabian include Babraham (undefeated), Dismal (undefeated), Dormouse (undefeated), Bajazet, Old England, Mogul, the Coalition Colt, the Gower Stallion, the Godolphin Colt, Whitenose, Brother to Whitenose, Cripple (sire of Gimcrack), Feather, Matchless, Dimple, Cygnet, Omar, and Lofty.
Several daughters of the Godolphin Arabian proved influential, but none so much as imported Selima (b.f. 1746), out of a mare by the notorious Hobgoblin. Selima was a foundation mare in America for the famous stud of Governor Ogle at Belair in Maryland. Another daughter was the famous "sister to Regulus" (b.f. 1743) who is the main conduit for the #11 family. In all, the Godolphin Arabian is credited with siring about 90 foals, but his influence, immediate and long range, was staggering.
On occasion, the Godolphin may have been referred to as a "Barb", because of his believed country of origin, Tunisia, on the Barbary Coast. Descriptions of him and portraits seem to indicate he was a horse of exquisite quality, more likely an Arabian. There are few physical observations of the horse from life, and one of the best is given by the veterinary surgeon Osmer, as quoted by Prior. "There never was a horse (at least, that I have seen) so well entitled to get racers as the Godolphin Arabian; for, whoever has seen this horse must remember that his shoulders were deeper, and lay farther into his back, than those of any horse ever yet seen. Behind the shoulders, there was but a very small space ere the muscles of his loins rose exceedingly high, broad, and expanded, which were inserted into his hindquarters with greater strength and power than in any horse I believe ever yet seen of his dimensions, viz fifteen hands high."
Another description, by Vicomte de Manty, is quoted in Mourdant Milner's book "The Godolphin Arabian". "He was of beautiful conformation, exquisitely proportioned with large hocks, well let down, with legs of iron, with unequalled lightness of forehand - a horse of incomparable beauty whose only flaw was being headstrong. An essentially strong stallion type, his quarters broad in spite of beign half starved, tail carried in true Arabian style."
He had a small head on a well arched and crested neck, was short-backed with tremendous quarters and a high-set tail. He had great bone, action, and a fiery temperament. He was described as a brown bay ("with reddish mottle"), about 15 hands high (one source says 14.2h.) with some white on the off hind heel. He was said to be small, but that his get usually stood taller. His constant companion was the cat, Grimalkin.
The Godolphin Arabian died in 1753 at an advanced age estimated to be 29 years (presuming he was a mature stallion of five or six upon his arrival in England). A solemn ceremony was performed at gravesited and he was laid to rest under a gateway at the stable. A stone slab was placed over his grave with an inscription noting who lay underneath. This gravesite is still in existence inside the archway of the stable block within the building complex inside Wandlebury Ring.
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