Thoroughbred Racehorses
Origins of the Thoroughbred:
This breed of horse was originally bred in The United Kingdom due to the English horsemens need to own a swift horse. There are three that founded this breed which are: Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian, named after their owners, Thomas Darley, Lord Godolphin and Captain Robert Byerley. Every one of these stallions were shipped to England from the Mediterranean Middle East between 1670 and 1710. The result was a breed that could carry weight with sustained pace over extensive distances. In the region of ninety percent of modern thoroughbreds have come from Eclipse whose grandsire was Darley Arabian, who never lost in eighteen races. This prompted a very refined breeding process which has continued for nearly 250 years, producing the best race horses, giving them authorityand excellence on the race track.
Throughout the turn of the 1700’s, breeding reports for Thoroughbreds were sparse and frequently imperfect, and typically, they would not refer to a horse before the young horse had proven themself commendable. A man named James Weatherby, through his own inquiries and relentless work, and by the consolidation of his own privately kept pedigree records published the earliest volume of the General Stud Book. This was done in 1791. The foremost publication listed 387 mares, each of which could trace back to Eclipse. The General Studbook is still available in England by Weatherby and Sons. Several years later, as thoroughbred racing became popular in North America the necessity for a pedigree registry for American Bred Thoroughbreds, similar to the General Stud Book became clear.
In 1873, the earliest American Stud Book was released by Colonel Sanders D. Bruce. This man spent nearly a lifetime researching the pedigrees of American Throughbred horses. He followed the pattern of the General Stud Book creating six volumes of the register up until 1896 when the project was furthered by The Jockey Club. The integrity of the American Stud Book is the flagstone on which all Thoroughbred racing in North America is based. The initial publication of the American Stud Book produced by The Jockey Club had a foal number of around 3,000. In 1986 in had grown to an amazing 51,000. These days The Jockey Club runs an elaborate new computer system to counter the registration issues presented by the gigantic quantity of annual registrations. The Jockey Club owns and runs one of the most complex computer operations in the world at the moment, with its record holding more than 1.8 million thoroughbred horses on a master pedigree file, with names that can be traced back to the 1800’s. Including bloodlines, this computer database also processes daily racing outcomes of all Thoroughbred race in North America, not including the ability to process electronically sent pedigree and racing figures from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and other primary Thoroughbred districts. An extra descendant of Darley Arabian is Diomed; who won the earliest running of the Kentucky Derby in 1780. At 21 years of age he was introduced to the US where he began the male line via his son, Sir Archie.
Thoroughbred horses are the preferred choice for track racing. Most thoroughbred horsesare born somewhere between January and April, although their certified date of birth is January 1 of the present year. During their first year of growth, they are increasing size and power with the youth starting his training as a yearling. Thouroughbreds learn to receive a bridle and a saddle and soon after a rider on its back to break the horse ready for the starting gate and the run around the track.
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