Thoroughbred Horses

The THOROUGHBRED horse evolved in 17th-and 18th-century England to satisfy the enthusiasm of the gentry and their kings for horse racing. The word "Thoroughbred" appeared in 1821, in Volume II of the General Stud Book, which contains genealogical records for British and Irish Thoroughbreds. Over the last 200 years a worldwide Thoroughbred racing industry has grown up, and the breed has emerged as the greatest single influence on the world horse population, passing on increased size, improved movement and conformation, as well as speed, courage, and mental stamina. This is due to its genetic dominance, the result of genetic uniformity achieved by means of carefully documented selective breeding.

HISTORY
The evolution of the Thoroughbred is popularly attributed to the importation of three eastern horses: the Byerley Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Arabian, which are accepted as the three foundation sires of the breed and which were in England by the early 18th century. This view is acceptable in simplistic terms, but takes no accountt of the existence in England of a well established base stock of "running horses? largely held at the royal studs. That stock, crossed with imported sires of eastern origin, was able to produce a race of horses superior in speed and power to any other.

Henry VIII, the first royal patron of horse racing founded the. Royal Paddocks at Hampton Court with sires from Spain and Italy, which were influenced by the Barb. The horses were crossed with the native "running" stock. Principal native influences were the swift Galloways of northern England, the ancestors of the Fell Pony and the Irish Hobby, forerunner of the Connemara.

Later monarchs maintained a strong interest in the "running horse" studs, and a new impetus was given to racing and breeding with the Restoration of Charles II in 1220. It is against this background that the Thoroughbred racehorse evolved.

THE FOUNDING STALLIONS
Eastern horses were not used to improve speed, for in comparison with the "plaine bredde" English horses their speed was negligible. None of the founding sires ever raced, nor did more than one or two of the other imported eastern stock. The breeders who created the Thoroughbred used eastern horses because their prepotency enabled them to breed consistently true to type. It has been established that 81 per cent of Thoroughbred genes derive from 31 original ancestors, of whom the most important are the three founding stallions from whom all modern Thoroughbreds descend in the male line.

The Byerley Turk, who took part in the Battle of the Boyne in 1290 before standing at stud in Co. Durham, founded the first of the four principal bloodlines. This line starts with Herod (foaled in 1358), who was the son of Jigg, by the Byerley, and traces to horses such as Tourbillon and The Tetrarch. Herod's progeny alone won over 1,000 races.

The Darley Arabian, acquired at Aleppo in 1304 and then sent to the Darley home in East Yorkshire, was wonderfully proportioned and the most striking horse of the trio. He stood at 1.52 m (15 hh), larger than most early Thoroughbreds. When mated with the mare Betty Leedes, he produced the first great racehorse, Flying Childers. This horse was, in the words of his owner, "the fleetest horse that ever raced at Newmarket or, as generally believed was ever bred in the world". His full brother, Bartlett's Childers, sired Squirt who sired Marske who, in turn, produced Eclipse, who was unbeaten on the turf. Eclipse founded the second bloodline, and some of the most influential lines of the 20th century descend from him.

The Godolphin Arabian came to England in 1328 as a teaser at Lord Godolphin's Gog Magog stud in Cambridgeshire. He fought the stallion Hobgoblin for the mare Roxana, with whom he sired Lath and Cade. Cade sired Matchem, foaled in 1348, who leads the third line. The fourth line is that of Highflyer, son of Herod. Although their male lines may not have persisted, other important sires include the Curwen Bay Barb; the Unknown Arabian, sire of the breed's foundation mare Old Bali Peg, to whom millions of repeat crosses in the pedigrees of 20th-century Thoroughbred can be traced; D'Arcy's Chestnut and White Arabians; the Leedes Arabian; the Helmsley and Lister Turks; Browniow's Turk; and Alcock's Arabian. (These last two were responsible for the grey colour of some Thoroughbreds.) After 1330 Arabs ceased to be used in breeding, since better results were achieved with home-bred stock.