Stud Problem Comes Under Discussion

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 12

Stud Problem Comes Under Discussion

SAME SIRE-SAME MARE TELEGONY OR SATURATION? The extraordinary performances of ' the four-year-old Athford, and his own brother, the three-year-old Trigo, dur- ' ing the present season have once again 1 brought up the question concerning ( the advisability, or otherwise, of re- ( peatediy using the same sire, writes “The Special Commissioner,” The supporters of the method, and there are many, base their advocacy upon the fact that the theory of Telegony, or the influence of a sire upon a succeeding mating, has been turned down by every thinking scientist, but in doing so they mix the term up with that of Saturation, which, to my way of thinking, is a totally different proposition. To define them briefly. Telegony is the supposed effect of a sire upon the succeeding offspring of the mare to another sire. Years ago this theory was brought into great prominence by some experiments that were carried out upon quaggas by Lord Morton. This breeder obtained a quagga—a form of zebra stallion —and mated it with a chestnut mare of seven-eighths Arabian blood. Later this mare was mated to a black Arabian stallion and produced a colt and a filly that showed some signs of the quagga striping. Existence of Telegony This was at once settled upon as a positive proof of the existence of Telegony, and it held good until Professor Cossar Ewart, of Edinburgh, published his famous Penycuick experiments, in which he proved that “mares are neither liable to be infected by a sire belonging to a different breed nor by a sire belonging to a different type of the same breed. The peculiar marks, gait, etc., supposed to have been inherited from the previous sire could be accounted for by reversion to a not very remote ancestor.” To believe in such a theory is to believe in the miraculous. Simply stated it means that if a white woman was married to a black man, and later married a white man, it would be possible for her to give birth to black children. Obviously it is impossible. Not so, however, with Saturation, a term best defined as being the resultant effect of the repeated matings of the same mare to the same sire. Here there is no necessity to believe in miracles. Throughout the history of bloodstock breeding the repeated mating of a rpare to the same sire has been tried, on and off, with little if any success, simply and solely, as it seems to me. because the mare gets immune to, or unstimulated by, her constant mate. With a change of sire she would be stimulated afresh by a new variety of spermatozoa. What History Says Glance at history. In the one hundred and fifty races which have been run for the Derby and in which there have been 2,561 runners, there have been only live of own brothers returned as winn- rs. These were Rhadamanthus and Daedalus, sons of Justice from Flyer, who scored in 1790 and 1794; Archduke and Paris, both of whom were by Sir Peter Teazle from Horatia, and won in 1799 and 1806; Whalebone and Whisker, sons of Waxy out of Penelope, who scored in 1810 and 1812; Lapdog and Spaniel, who were by Whalebone from a daughter of Canopus, and were successful in 1826 and 1831; and Persimmon and Diamond Jubilee, who carried the royal colours to victory in 1896 and 1900, and were by St. Simon from Perdita 11. Even among these own brothers, Saturation was not always evident. Take the story of the mares, Flyer, the dam of Rhadamanthus and Daedalus, produced foals to Protector and Amadis before Rhadamanthus, by Justice, came along. Before the birth of Daedalus she was mated with Justice again and Pot-8-o’s. ' The lastnamed horse probably revived her | energy, and a return to Justice resulted in the production of her second Derby winner. The case of Horatia, the dam of Archduke and Paris, both of whom were by Sir Peter Teazle, is rather different. From the time that her first foal, a colt by Highflyer, was born in 1786, until she died, in 1805, her record read: Bay colt, by Guildford (died a foal); barren; bay colt, by Highflyer; brown fiilly, by Highflyer; bay colt, by Highflyer (died a yearling) ; brown filly, by Sir Peter Teazle (died young); Mr. Teazle and Stamford, both by Sir Peter Teazle; brown, colt, by Sir Peter Teazle (died a foal) ; Archduke; barren; brown filly, by Sir Peter Teazle; colt, by Sir Peter Teazle (died young) ; brown colt by Sir Peter Teazle; bay colt, by Sir Peter Teazle (died young); barren; Paris and barren. Here there is, surely, a case against Saturation, as the record can hardly be called a satisfetory one. Penelope Now we come to Penelope, the dam of Whalebone and Whisker. Really, these are the only two of her produce, with whom we are concerned. Going to the stud in 1805 she produced a filly to Waxy in 1806. This filly was never named, but won a race, and was followed by Whalebone, a winner of 20 races and the sire of 252 winners of races worth £81,683; Web, the dam of the Derby ; winner, Middleton; Woful, the sire of 58 winners of races valued at £33,589, 1 including Zinc, who won both the “Guineas” and the Oaks; Wilful and Wire, who went to Ireland, and Whis- 1 ker, Avho took the Derby, and at the stud sired the winners of stakes worth £55,140. < This was a clean run of seven matings to the same horse—Waxy—but in 1813 she was barren to Vandyke; the < next year, to Walton, produced Water- , 100, a St. Leger winner; in 1815 was barren to Selim: in the three following Shears foaled Wildfire and Windfall—both useless—and was barren to . Waxy; had Whizgig, dam of the 1 “Guineas” winner, Oxygen, to Rubens; was then barren to him and to Scud, * and then bred Waltz to Election, and * Wamba to Merlin, before she died in ( the early days of 1824. * Remarkable Record j Penelope’s was a truly remarkable i record, the more so as her-son, Whale- j bone, was the sire of Lapdog and Spaniel, both of whom were from a mare by Canopus. . In this instance Saturation was again rampant, as, except for her first , foal, which was by Octavius, she was , never mated with any horse except 5 Whalebone, and to him produced 1 seven foals, including Lapdog and ( Spaniel, nroduced a dead foal to him 1 upon one occasion, and was barren to him five times. f Lastly, there is the case of Persim- 1 mon and Diamond Jubilee, which is so f often wrongly quoted in support of i the theory. Both were by St. Simon c from Perdita 11., but there was no i possibility of the occurrence of Saturation, as Perdita’s mates were varied. First of all, she had two foals to Barcaldine. Then came Florizel 11. and Persimmon, to St. Simon; after which she was mated with, and had a foal to , Donovan, and then did the same with Surefoot before returning to St. Simon, to produce Sandringham, Diamond Jubilee and Nadejda. I