Horse Breeds - Thoroughbreds
Thoroughbreds are known as “America’s Racing Horse”.
This breed of horse runs at the race track every single day
around the world.
History of the Thoroughbred:
This breed of horse was originally bred in England due to the
English horsemen’s desire to have a fast race horse. There
are three that founded this bloodline which are: Byerley
Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian, named after their
respective owners, Thomas Darley, Lord Godolphin and Captain Robert
Byerley. All of these stallions were imported to
England from the Mediterranean Middle East between 1670 and
1710. The result was an animal that could carry weight with
sustained speeds over extended distances. Approximately
ninety percent of modern thoroughbreds have descended from Eclipse
whose grandsire was Darley Arabian, who was never beaten in
eighteen races.
This began a very selective breeding process which has been
going on for nearly 250 years. Breeding the best stallions to
the best mares to produce fast race horses, giving them superiority
and excellence being established on the race track.
Around the turn of the 1700’s, breeding records for
Thoroughbreds were sparse and usually incomplete, and many times,
they would not name a horse until the young horse had proven them
self worthy. A gentleman named James Weatherby, through his
own research and hard work and by the consolidation of his own
privately kept pedigree records published the first volume of the
General Stud Book. This was done in 1791. The first
publication listed 387 mares, each of which could trace back to
Eclipse. The General Studbook is still published in England
by Weatherby and Sons, Secretaries to The English Jockey Club.
Many years later, as thoroughbred racing proliferated in North
America the need for a pedigree registry for American Bred
Thoroughbreds, similar to the General Stud Book became
apparent. In 1873, the first American Stud Book was published
by Colonel Sanders D. Bruce. This man spent almost a lifetime
researching the pedigrees of American Thoroughbreds. He
followed the pattern of the General Stud Book producing six volumes
of the register until 1896 when the project was taken over by The
Jockey Club. The integrity of the American Stud Book is the
foundation on which all Thoroughbred racing in North America
Depends.
The first publication of the American Stud Book by The Jockey
Club had a foal crop of around 3,000. In 1986 in had grown to
an astonish 51,000. Today The Jockey Club runs an elaborate
new computer technology to meet the registration challenges posed
by the gigantic number of annual registrations. The
Jockey Club owns and operates one of the most sophisticated
computer operations in the world today, with its database holding
more than 1.8 million horses on a master pedigree file, with names
that trace back to the 1800’s. This is quite impressive
genealogy. As well as bloodlines, this computer system also
handles daily racing results of every Thoroughbred race in North
America, as well as the ability to process electronically submitted
pedigree and racing data from England, Ireland, France and other
leading Thoroughbred countries.
Another descendant of Darley Arabian is Diomed; he won the first
running of the Kentucky Derby in 1780. When he was twenty one
years old he was brought to the United States where he produced the
male line through his son, Sir Archie.
The most world renowned horse race is the Kentucky Derby, being
the first race of the Triple Crown. The Preakness and The
Belmont follow this historical racing event. Thoroughbreds
are the horse of choice for track racing. Most thoroughbreds
are born between January and April, but their official date of
birth is January 1 of the current year. During their first
year of growth, they are developing size and power with the
youngster beginning his training as a yearling. The horse
learns to accept a bridle and a saddle and soon after a rider on
his back to break the horse and prepare him for the starting gate
and the run around the track.
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