DAMS OF CLASSIC WINNERS Leather SIGNED Michael Church

DAMS OF CLASSIC WINNERS

By Michael Church

Bound in blue leather, with gilt lettering to front and spine, all edges gilt, 608 pages. Landscape 24 x 18cm.

Book No. 35 of 1101 dedicated to COTHERSTONE  winner of the 1843 Two Thousand Guineas - SIGNED BY MICHAEL CHURCH

Published by RACING POST LTD. 1994.

A stallion may cover 100 mares or more in the course of a five month breeding season, earning vast amounts for his owners, while the broodmare, limited by Mother Nature to one foal a year, funds his lifestyle and provides him with opportunities to attain further riches and glory.

The science of genetics revealed long ago that at any conception, potential to influence the offspring is equally divided between the parents.  Inevitably, there are many cases when mare owners pay for the privilege of a mating at which an expensive sire contributes less the the product than the mare herself.

Man's commercial exploitation of the facts of equine life has itself been natural, and though the glory is generally granted to the sires, successful breeders have never been slow to credit their mares.

This book goes some way towards redressing the balance of the sexes, focussing on the formerly undervalued distaff contributions to classic winners through the ages.  Just how undervalued that contribution once was may be gauged from the fact that Michael Church has been unable to begin at the beginning; the identity of the first St Leger winner's dam went unrecorded, seemingly regarded as insignificant at the time.

But all the rest are here, their pedigrees painstakingly compiled to four generations, with a mass of data on their overall breeding records, plus some fascinating analyses.

Tony Morris

CONTENTS

PART ONE - THE CLASSIC RACES

The Origins and records of the classics

Titles, Courses, Distances and Weights

Classic Results

PART TWO - THE DAM'S PEDIGREES AND NOTABLE PRODUCE

Dams of Classic Winners 1777-1993

Major races of the past and present

Newmarket Courses 1799 and 1899

Value of the £ 1690 - 1990

PART THREE - THE ANALYSIS

First foals

Number of foals born

Sisters and half-sisters

Age of the dam

Inbreeding in the dams

Dams inbred three times or more to the same horse

Dams of more than one classic winner

Classic winners out of Classic winners

Best sires for dams of Classic winners

Index to best sires

Sires of dams of Classic winners

Index to sires of dams

Dams of Classic winners sired by a Classic winner and a Leading sire

Most contributions in two generations

Index to Notable Produce

Index to Dam's Pedigrees

EXCELLENT CONDITION - WILL BE POSTED FIRST CLASS RECORDED