Families, shamilies?

Question

'95% of thoroughbreds linked to one superstud', so what's it all about; these families - 1a, 1b, 5c etc?

Answer 1

name of book, miss salsa?

Answer 2

All thoroughbreds can be traced back to one of 3 foundation stallions - The Darley Arabian, The Godolphin Arabian and The Byerley Turk.  

The Darley Arabian's bloodline is the most dominant of the three and the Byerley Turk's the weakest.

The Families are broken down as follows:

1 - 74 English Thoroughbred Families tracing to a female taproot entered in the General Stud Book.

B1-B26 English Half-bred racing families

A1-A39 American racing families

C1-C36 Australian racing families

Ar1-Ar2 Argentinian racing families

P1-P2 Polish racing families.

Within each group are individual mares that are the foundation of that particular line.  For example:

Family 1 traces back "Tregonwell's Natural Barb Mare", therefore Families 1a - 1w are all descended from this one mare - any significant producers from this line are allocated their own line - i.e. Family 1a traces to a descendent of Tregonwell's Natural Barb Mare - Bonny Lass.  Family 1b traces to Morel, also a descendent.

Family 2 trace to Burtons Barb Mare, etc, etc.

Therefore you will find that all Thoroughbreds are descended from 3 stallions and about 179 mares.

Hope that helps to explain things a little!

Edit - the book is titled Family Tables of Racehorses Vol IV.  It is 3 books (an index and two books of tables) and was printed in 2004 by the Japan Racing Association, who gifted it to my office.

I'm not sure if you can buy it anywhere, but contact Tindalls the Bookshop in Newmarket (a racing book specialist) 01638 730343 and they may be able to help.

Edit Pt 2 - Here it is!  http://www.horsenavi.com/html/homepage/f...