User:Peaky76/Foundation sires

Foundation sires
The foundation sires of the Thoroughbred breed are those stallions from which every modern day Thoroughbred is descended. Today, the term is most often used to refer to three particular stallions of the early 18th century whose dominance in the bloodlines of modern Thoroughbreds is almost total. They are:


 * The Darley Arabian (foaled c. 1700)
 * The Byerley Turk (foaled c. 1680)
 * The Godolphin Arabian (also known as The Godolphin Barb) (foaled c. 1724)

The breed was founded by these horses and other Arabians, Turks and Barbs who were imported to England from their native Middle East to mate with larger English mares. Through lines such as Eclipse, Herod and Matchem, their influence descends to the present day.

Definition
The usage of the term "foundation sire" is somewhat fluid. In its strictest sense it refers only to those stallions that still exist in the "sire line", otherwise known as the "male tail line", of the breed. In that sense, only three foundation sires of the breed remain - the Darley Arabian, the Byerley Turk and the Godolphin Arabian. This is the sense in which it is most commonly used.

In a wider sense, it refers to any early stallion who helped found the breed, many of whose influences persist in the breed until this day, but only through maternal lines. In that sense, there are many more "foundation sires". There were around 200 oriental stallions imported to Britain at around the same time and a Trinity College, Dublin study found that today, nearly all of the world's Thoroughbreds are descended from just 28 of them.

Since 1791, the General Stud Book has recorded the pedigree of all Thoroughbred horses.

Origin of the breed
Horses of Eastern origin had been imported into Britain from the time of James VI and I or earlier, but the bloodline of such horses had been brought into disrepute when an Arabian horse bought by King James from a merchant, Mr Markham, for £500 was found to be unsuccessful as a racer. As a result, only a few mares from Tangiers, and "Place's White Turk" were imported between then and the time of Queen Anne.

The Barbs, Persians, Turkish and East Indian

The importation of the Darley Arabian in the early part of the reign of Queen Anne is "the event [that] forms the great epoch from which the history of the Turf should be dated."

Leedes Arabian (foaled 1755), first called the Northumberland Arabian imported to England by Mr Phillips on behalf of the Earl of Northumberland, bought expensively in Arabia Felix (modern day Yemen) from the King of Sinna. Stood first as a private stallion for Lord Northumberland until 1766, when he covered mares for a Mr Leedes in North Melford, Yorkshire at 3 guineas 5 shillings, rising to 5 gs 5s from 1767. He sired Ariadne, Nonsuch, Actaeon and Grizelda among others.

Honeywood's White Arabian, sire of the two True Blues, the elder of which was the best plate horse of his day in England.

Arabian sire of Makeless and Bald Frampton.

Newcombe Bay Mountain Arabian, bough at 3 years old by Captain Burford from "the Thick of St. John Dirackiz" in 1756. "One of the finest Arabians that had been imported, and more like the Godolphin Barb than any other horse that had been brought into this country". Covered at Bowes Farm near Southgate, Middlesex at 5gs 5s from 1760 onwards.

Damascus Arabian, a black brown horse foaled in 1754, and arrived in England in September 1760 at Mr William Coates' stud at Smeaton near Northallerton, Yorkshire initially for 5gs 5s, rising to 10gs and 5s by 1773. Thought to be the purest Araban, with no Turcoman or Barb.

Cullen Arabian, brought into England from Constantinople by Mr Mosco and property of Lord Cullen, died 1761.

Chesnut Arabian, brought into England by the Ambassador in Constantinople, at a cost of £200, covering at 5gs 5s at Oran, Catterick, Yorkshire

Lonsdale Bay Arabian, Lord Lonsdale. "Many of our best racehorses are traced to him"

Curwen Bay Barb, or simply the Bay Barb, a present from Moulay Ismail to Louis XIV and imported to England by Mr Curwen of Workington, Cumbria

Mr Compton's Barb, originally the Sedley Grey Arabian.

The Acaster Turk

The Belgrade Turk, taken at the Siege of Belgrade by General Merce, then passed via the Prince of Craon and Prince of Lorraine to Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, dying around 1740.

The Turk, called the Shadling or the Lister Turk, brought by the Duke of Berwick from the Siege of Buda

The Thoulouse Barb

The Marshall or Selaby Turk

Honeywood's White Arabian Oglethorpe's Arabian Dozens more

Darley Arabian


By far the most dominant foundation sire in modern Thoroughbred bloodlines is the Darley Arabian. A Trinity College, Dublin study found that up to 95% of male thoroughbreds can be traced back to the horse.

Foaled around 1700, the Darley Arabian was imported by Thomas Darley, the English consul in Aleppo, and sent home to the family estate of Aldby Park East Yorkshire. He was unraced, and spent his entire stud career at Aldby Park, covering mares until 1719 and dying at the age of 30. His reputation was built on two stallions he sired out of Betty Leedes - Flying Childers, which became the "first really great racehorse", and Bartlett's Childers, who was unraced like the Darley Arabian, but became an outstanding sire.

The Darley Arabian sire line persists to this day through a great-grandson of Bartlett's Childers, Eclipse. The predominant sire of the 20th century, Northern Dancer is a direct sire line descendant of Eclipse.

Byerley Turk


Foaled around 1680, the Byerley Turk was claimed by Captain Robert Byerley, during war against the Turkish army in Buda. The Turk was then ridden by his new owner at the Battle of the Boyne, when the horse's speed was said to have saved the Captain from death. Despite this speed, the horse remained unraced, and instead went to stud. His son Jigg sired the best race horse of the day, Partner.

Like the Darley Arabian, the Byerley Turk sire line survives through the influence of a single horse - Herod who was a hugely important sire in the second half of the 18th century. Dr Devious and Indian Ridge are two of the few sires that have carried the Byerley Turk line down to the present day.

Other foundation sires
James I is reported to have given £500 to Mr Markham to purchase an Arabian, probably the first to have been imported to the country. A horse called the White Turk was imported at around the same time by Mr. Place, later stud-master to Oliver Cromwell. Ut was said that the names of Place and the White Turk would "live for ever in the memory of all British sportsmen".