Thoroughbred
Horse History
The term
Thoroughbred describes a breed of horse whose ancestry
traces back to three foundation sires -- the Darley Arabian,
the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerly Turk. About 90% of
modern Thoroughbreds have descended from Eclipse (his grandsire
was Darley Arabian), who was never beaten in 18 races.
Named
after their respective owners -- Thomas Darley, Lord Godolphin
and Captain Robert Byerly -- these three stallions were
brought to England from the Mediterranean Middle East around
the turn of the 17th century and bred to the stronger,
but less precocious, native horse.
The result
was an animal which could carry weight with sustained speed
over extended distances, qualities which brought a new
dimension to the burgeoning, aristocratically-supported,
sport of horse racing.
So began
a selective breeding process which has been going on for
more than 250 years, breeding the best stallions to the
best mares, with the proof of superiority and excellence
being established on the race track.
Key to
this selective breeding process is the integrity of the
breed's records.
In early
days, Thoroughbred breeding records were sparse and frequently
incomplete, it being the custom, among other things, not
to name a horse until it had proved outstanding ability.
It was left to James Weatherby, through his own research
and by consolidation of a number of privately-kept pedigree
records, to publish the first volume of the General Stud
Book.
He did
this in 1791, listing the pedigrees of 387 mares, each
of which could be traced back to Eclipse, a direct descendent
of the Darley Arabian; Matchem, a grandson of the Godolphin
Arabian; and Herod, whose great-great grandsire was the
Byerly Turk. The General Stud Book is still published in
England by Weatherby and Sons, Secretaries to the English
Jockey Club.
Several
years later, as racing proliferated in the fast-expanding
continent of North America, the need for a pedigree registry
of American-bred Thoroughbreds, similar to the General
Stud Book, became apparent. The first volume of The American
Stud Book was published in 1873, by Col. Sanders D. Bruce,
a Kentuckian who had spent almost a lifetime researching
the pedigrees of American Thoroughbreds.
Bruce
closely followed the pattern of the first General Stud
Book, producing six volumes of the register until 1896,
when the project was taken over by The Jockey Club.
Integrity
of The American Stud Book is the foundation on which all
Thoroughbred racing in North America depends.
Without
assurance, beyond all reasonable doubt, of the identity
of every Thoroughbred which competes, or which is bred
with a view to continuing the breed, the sport of racing
as it is known today, could not exist. Nor would there
be any possibility of measuring results of the centuries-old
quest to improve the Thoroughbred.
When
The Jockey Club published its first volume of the Stud
Book the foal crop was about 3,000. By 1986 it exceeded
51,000. The Jockey Club embraced new computer technology
to meet the registration challenges posed by such large
numbers. Today, The Jockey Club manages one of the most
sophisticated computer operations in the country.
Its database
holds the names of more than 1.8 million horses on a master
pedigree file, names which trace back to the late 1800's.
The system
also handles daily results of every Thoroughbred race in
North America, as well as processing electronically-transmitted
pedigree and racing data from England, Ireland, France
and other leading Thoroughbred racing countries around
the world.
Further
giant strides in improvement of the integrity of the Stud
Book came in 1977, when The Jockey Club, taking advantage
of medical science advances, took the first steps of an
extensive blood-typing program. Today every Thoroughbred
foal registered in The American Stud Book, and its sire
and dam, is blood-typed to insure parentage verification.
Guardianship
of The American Stud Book is a responsibility of The Jockey
Club, almost as old as the very tradition of racing in
North America. But its implementation involves some of
the most sophisticated developments of the modern technological
era.
Although
there are records of horse racing on Long Island as far
back as 1665, the introduction of organized Thoroughbred
racing to North America is traditionally credited to Governor
Samuel Ogle of Maryland, through whose instigation racing "between
pedigreed horses, in the English style" was first
staged at Annapolis in 1745.
As the
country developed so did Thoroughbred racing, spreading
across the nation from coast to coast until today the volume
of racing in America far outweighs that of any other country
in the world. American bloodlines, too, have come to be
respected in the four corners of the earth.
What
began as a pastime and sporting amusement for the wealthy
has now become a worldwide multi-million dollar industry
whose economic impact is widely felt at regional and national
levels. From license fees and direct taxes on pari-mutuel
handle Thoroughbred racing generates nearly $500 million
in government revenue each year.
But this
is relatively minor in comparison to the overall urban
and rural economic contribution made by the wide and varied
infrastructure of the racing and breeding industry as a
whole. A recent estimate, for example, put the industry's
contribution to the economy of New York State alone at
more than $1.8 billion each year.
Responding
to the aberration of mid-1980's astronomic yearling prices
which were fueled by European and Middle East racing interests,
the annual North American Thoroughbred foal crop peaked
at 51,293 in 1986. The decade was to show an overall production
increase of 65% on the aggregate crops of the 1970's. But
adjustments were inevitable and the foal crop has decreased
each year since that high point, with The Jockey Club currently
projecting a 1993 registered foal crop of approximately
36,700.
There
are indications, however, that this necessary adjustment
has more than served its purpose and that a rationalized
and more stable breeding industry can once again look forward
to controlled growth.
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