Ancestry of the Thoroughbred horse:
This breed of horse was originally bred in England due to the English horsemens desire to have a swift horse. There are three that began this bloodline which are: Byerley Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Arabian, all named after their owners, Thomas Darley, Lord Godolphin and Captain Robert Byerley. All of these stallions were shipped to England from the Mediterranean Middle East between 1670 and 1710. The result was a horse that could hold weight with consistent speed over extensive distances. In the region of ninety percent of current thoroughbreds have descended from Eclipse the grandsire of whom was Darley Arabian, who was never beaten in eighteen races. This started a very selective breeding process which has been going on for all but 250 years, breeding the greatest race horses, giving them authorityand distinction on the race track.
About the turn of the 1700′s, breeding records for Thoroughbred horses were meager and regularly incomplete, and many times, they would not name a horse until the young horse had proven themself commendable. A man called James Weatherby, through his own inquiries and hard work, and by the collection of his own privately owned pedigree accounts published the earliest volume of the General Stud Book. He did this in 1791. The initial publication listed 387 mares, every one of which could be traced back to Eclipse. The General Studbook is still available in the UK by Weatherby and Sons. Several years afterward, as thoroughbred racing increased in popularity in North America the necessity for a pedigree registry for American Bred Thoroughbreds, comparable to the General Stud Book became apparent.
In 1873, the foremost American Stud Book was available by Colonel Sanders D. Bruce. This gentleman used up nearly a lifetime researching the pedigrees of American Thoroughbreds. He continued the example of the General Stud Book creating six volumes of the register until 1896 when the project was carried on by The Jockey Club. The reliability of the American Stud Book is the base on which all Thoroughbred racing in North America relies. The first edition of the American Stud Book released by The Jockey Club had a foal amount of approximately 3,000. In 1986 in had grown to an amazing 51,000. Today The Jockey Club operates a powerful new digital system to meet the registration issues posed by the massive quantity of annual registrations. The Jockey Club owns and runs one of the most advanced computer systems in the world at the moment, with its catalog holding in excess of 1.8 million thouroughbreds on a master pedigree store, with names that trace back to the 1800′s. In addition to bloodlines, this computer database also processes daily racing outcomes of every Thoroughbred race in North America, not including the power to handle digitally submitted pedigree and racing information from England, Ireland, France and other primary Thoroughbred districts. An additional offspring of Darley Arabian is Diomed; he won the earliest running of the Kentucky Derby in 1780. At just 21 years old he was brought over to the US where he started the male line by way of his son, Sir Archie.
Thoroughbred horses are the preferred option for track racing. Most thoroughbreds are born between January and April, although their certified birthday is January 1 of the present year. Through their first year of growth, they are developing bulk and strength with the adolescent starting his training as a yearling. Thouroughbreds learn to accept a bridle and a saddle and shortly after a rider on its back to break in the horse and prepare him for the starting gate and the race around the track.
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