Show TROTTING HORSES On Thursday we spoke of Mr John H Wallaces visit to the Pacific Coast and as was natural referred to his theory of breeding the trotting horse which theory in brief is that to produce a trotter you must breed to a trotter and endorsed it We still do and think it the correct theory the-ory but this morning the Tribune takes I issue on the theory and upholds the running run-ning blood We are very glad the I Tribune docs not on account of the fact that we believe their theory to be wrong but because the discussion will lead Utah L boifccmen to an investigation of the question ques-tion themselves a thing they have not 3 done to any extent True it is that theories are not facts p and we agree with the Tribune when it cites the Ut Rev Mgr Capel as an authority I au-thority that all the theories of scientists are not yet established facts But what I is a theory An explanation of facts and the more the theory harmonizes with the facts the better it is The value of 1 any theory rests upon the number of f c facts which go to establish it All facts will not harmonize with any theory and I the theory must rest upon the most pow etful and numerous facts The experience experi-ence of men engaged in dealing with particular facts must also be taken into consideration in estimating the worth of a theory Now in determining whence came the trotting horse of America and what blood it is that has made him what he is there are many facts to be taken into consideration con-sideration We fully agree with the Tribune I Tri-bune that there is no other family of i trotters that stands so preeminent as the IJambletonians and we further admit I that that family is descended from imported im-ported Messenger Messenger was a thoroughbred or running horse but that there was any tendency in his get to trot until the second generation it is well known there was not In that generation there was a marked tendency It was Rysdicks Hambletonian that made the Messenger blood so famous although there were others of the same blood that were well known It is too long a bitf tory to relate to tell of all the crosses and outcrosses of the proportion of pacing blood the proportion of running blood J and of unknown blood that makes the American trotter of today and so we come to the question of the value of the running blood in the trotter It is the action which makes the running as well as trotter and not conformation The power to carry this action to its lightest speed depends on the power and I elasticity of the muscles as well as the hardness and strength of the bone Stamina is tho conjunction of these in p their highest development The Tribune I says that the chest in the trotter must be deep and not broad So it must in the runner The broad chest is needed where great strength is requiredas in the hunter The running horse has arrived at his present state of perfection through p a hundred years of breeding and selecting p select-ing the best runners both for spaed and endurance to lreed from To trace a thoroughbred back to Flying Childers or the Darley Arabian or the Godolphin Arabian is the ambition of all breeders of runners as the Arabian horse is the fountain head from which come the streams of running blood On L the theory that the trotter originally came from the runner then the closer 1 you breed the trotter to the runner the better he will be must hold good inbreeding L in-breeding the runner back to the Arabian To carry out this theory and to impiove the English racer Sir Wilfred S Blount spent some hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase Arabian horses in Arabia and of the purest blood What was the result 1 Not 1 K l 1 J an English breeder would patronize Sir Wilfreds stud of horses and all the sporting papers declared de-clared that there was not a thirdrate horse in the United Kingdom that could not beat the best horse in Sir Wilfreds stud What was the result The enterprise enter-prise failed cost Sir Wilfred some hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of dollars having to I sell his stud at a great sacrifice and established I es-tablished the fact that the Arabian I the forefather of the English racer is greatly inferior to his descendants the thoroughbred at the running gait It is a fact that none will deny that the thoroughbred is a better runner in every respect than the F Arabian What theory does it tend to establish This That where an ances ter of the race horse had a tendency to run and when his descendants have U I been selected for breeding on account of their inherited tendency to run that the tendency will increase with each generation I gener-ation the inheritance being stronger This is Mr Wallaces theory of the trotter It is Darwins theory of descent and of adaptation of means to ends This theory of Darwins as applied to the 1 1 r breeding of horses will be found best expounded in his work on The Variation of Plants and Animals Ani-mals under Domestication It is said that the infusion of thoroughbred blood into the trotter imparts stamina This is n theory that is not yet established On the theory of Darwin and Francis Galton those instincts are most transmitted which predominate in a parent Now in the runner does not the instinct to run predominate over all others It is this instinct to run that interferes with the instinct to trot and neutralizes the highest high-est development of either In accordance with this theory of the running blood in the trotter the more of that blood there is in the trotter the better he ought to be But such is not the case and now the running blood advocates say that onefourth running blood i is the proportion that is needed 1 and that this produces the best results ever yet attained and they cite in proof of this Maud S and JayEyeSee whose dams Miss Russel and Midnight were halfbred runners There is one most important fact connected with the breeding breed-ing of these two mares and that is that they were both by the same horse Pilot Jr and that horse was pacer The sire of these two most famous of horses was I Dictator by Ilambletonian 10 and a full L brother to Dexter In their sire then was found the most approved lines of trotting blood To what should the power of Maud S to make a record L of 209j and of JayEyeSee to make t a record of 210 be attributed to the one fourth running blood or the onehalf r trotting blood and onefourth pacing blood In this connection it should also be remembered that the trotting and I pacing actions are interchangeable gaits The stamina of the thoroughbred comes I from the fact that he is a high bred horse I and not from the fact that he is a runner and there is no runner living that could I I stand the same amount of work and I come out with sound wind and limbs as some of the trotters who campaign through a whole season Where is the runner run-ner that can do what JayEyeSee did I dkI when he made his fouryearold record of I 219 on the seventh heat The runner has attained his high finish of form and speed and endurance because his progenitors progen-itors have been selected for those qualities quali-ties and the same method in breeding the trotter is producing a high bred horse all of whose instincts arc to trot in place of running But the subject is inexhaustible inex-haustible and in future we shall return to it |