Page 43 - July 2016

The “Earls of Rutland” were known to race Hobbies. The most significant mare from the Helmsley Stud is Old Bald Peg, who was the dam of Old Peg - or the Old Morocco Mare as she is often seen in the pedigree. No actual pedigree is given for Old Bald Peg, but she is listed as sired by an Arabian and out of a Barb mare. We can note at this point that many
of the horses listed as Arabian were not full blood Arabian since the Bedouin breeders would not part with the horses of pure blood. It was common for the British breeder to put Arabian after a horse’s name to indicate that the horse carried Arabian blood.
Mackay-Smith indicates that it’s probably not true that an Arab was sire of Old Bald Peg. He didn’t deny, though, that she would have had some Barb blood in her veins.
But, he indicates that her source of speed
was the Hobby strain of horses found in her pedigree and used by her breeder, the Earls of Rutland. The Hobbies were the foundation of their breeding programs.
One of the horses produced from the Old Bald Peg female family was Spanker, who is called the first true Thoroughbred. He was sired by D’Arcy Yellow Turk, or as some call him Place’s White Turk. Spanker was out of the Old Morocco Mare (Old Peg). Spanker, as the first true Thoroughbred, was the best racehorse of his time based on his win in the King’s Bishop, a race made up of several four mile heats. He became an important sire and his foals include Old Careless, the sire of Betty Leedes, who was the dam of Bartlett’s Childers and Flying Childers. Bartlett’s Childers was the sire of Squirt, the sire of Marske, the sire of foundation sire Eclipse.
The dam of Betty Leedes was a mare named Cream Cheeks. This mare has been reported to be out of a Spanker Mare, a daughter of Spanker and her dam was the Old Morocco Mare (the dam of Spanker). Through modern genetics, they have found that Cream Cheeks was from a different female family but she still shows the blood of Old Bald Peg through Spanker on the sire side of her pedigree.
When they bred Spanker back to his
dam, the Old Morocco Mare (Old Peg), they did get a Spanker Mare. She was bred to
the Byerly Turk to get Jiggs, who would sire Croft’s Partner who sired Tartar. Tartar was the sire of Herod, who became the paternal grandsire of *Diomed - the first winner of the English Derby. Diomed would be imported to America, where he sired Sir Archy.
Sir Archy is a major contributor to the American Thoroughbred and to the American Quarter Horse. One of the early families
of the American Quarter Horse was the Copperbottom Family, the second oldest
family in the modern Quarter Horse. The Copperbottom Quarter Horse line takes us
to Golden Chief, R. L. Underwood’s famous foundation sire. This is the line that gave us such noted horses as Cutter Bill, who has a breeding pattern of 3 X 4 X 3 to Golden Chief.
Sir Archy is also credited with being a part of the sire line of the great Old Billy. According to Quarter Horse history, Sir Archy was the sire of Sir Solomon who was the sire of Thomas’s Big Solomon who sired Von Tromp, the sire of Shiloh. Shiloh was the sire of Old Billy, the foundation sire of the South Texas Quarter Horse family and the Peter McCue line of horses. An added note: This research has met with some disagreement among pedigree people. Some believe that the Sir Solomon in the pedigree of Shiloh was sired by Tickle Toby by Alfred by Matchem. Matchem was a grandson of the Godolphin Arabian. But, we do have to note that Sir Archy appears three more times in the pedigree of Old Billy and not just in his sire line.
Horses from the Old Bald Peg family through the tail female line include Triple Crown winner Count Fleet, Kentucky Derby winner Bold Venture, Kentucky Derby winner Old Rosebud, English Derby winner Priam, and English Derby and St. Leger Stakes winner Hyperion. Bold Venture was the sire of Depth Charge, a half-brother to Count Fleet. Alibhai, found in the pedigree of Dash For Cash, is also from the Old
Bald Peg family. The interesting part of this is that Bold Venture and Depth Charge, a sire and his son, are from the Old Bald Peg family; and the same situation appears with Hyperion and his son Alibhai. This means both the sire and the son come from the same tail female line. They both go to Old Bald Peg in the tail female line.
Domino is a stallion we always seem to come back to in our look at the influence
of speed on the running Quarter Horse. Domino is from the #23 family of
English Foundation Family Lines. This
is the family founded by Piping Peg’s
Dam. Mackay-Smith explains in Speed And The Thoroughbred, The Complete History, that Piping Peg’s Dam was tied to the Helmsley Stud and could be related to Old Bald Peg; and that is why she was given the name Piping Peg’s Dam. Thus, we get the ties in this family to the Helmsley Stud and from there ties to the Hobby. For many years, the pedigree people reported that Piping Peg, a daughter of Piping Peg’s Dam, was the dam of a mare known as the Hobby Mare. They have since revealed that Piping Peg and the Hobby Mare were sisters. They were both sired by the Lister Turk. It is through the
Bold Venture is the sire of Depth Charge, and both go back to the same tail female line of the Old Bald Peg family that produced Spanker.
Bold Venture TB, sire of 3-time Quarter Horse World Champion Miss Princess.
Depth Charge TB, multiple Quarter Horse Champion sire including World Champion Johnny Dial.
Domino TB shows up often in the Quarter Horse speed pedigrees and comes from the family founded by Piping Peg’s Dam, who was the sister of the Hobby Mare.
SPEEDHORSE, July 2016 41
SPEEDLINES