In the last post, Noah Stocks the Red Barn, Noah imported Interpose, in foal to Hyder Ali, from Meadows Farm in Illinois. Interpose was one of the broodmares I researched early. In time, my digging uncovered a curious trend in that little was written about broodmares, save the ones who earned a lot of money as a race mare or proved to be a “blue hen” in the stud. “Blue hen” is rooted in Thoroughbred racing and the term has since bled into other horse breeds. A blue hen mare produces winner after winner no matter the stallion she’s bred to, which alludes to her own genetic potency. Such mares influence genetic shifts within a breed.
Nineteenth-century Thoroughbred stallions producing winning daughters and sons commanded almost all the ink and glory. For instance, Antwerp and Lamplighter, compiler of American Thoroughbred pedigree tables, focused on “the male line in the most prominent horses of the day.” Antwerp lamented mares, and here’s an excerpt: “[Mares are] a necessary evil, only to serve as material to propagate the breed. Mares are never produced per se, for the purpose to serve as broodmares. They are only the sisters of their brothers and the daughters of their sires. Therefore, no consideration will be paid to mares in these tables.” Another example is the Doncaster Ranch narrative penned by Charles Armstrong. He mentions the “horse fathers” in the Doncaster Stud but not the horse mothers.
True to the standard, I found lots of material on Hyder Ali. His bloodlines were first-class, with turf writers noting his sire English-bred Leamington who was four times a leading American sire. Hyder’s dam, Lady Duke, was a daughter of Lexington, the greatest Thoroughbred sire the planet had ever seen. She foaled Hyder Ali in 1872 at the Erdenheim Stud, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The bay colt grew to be a well-developed, powerful-looking racehorse standing 16 hands and so ill-tempered that one observer characterized him as “a man-eater.”
“Fast as an arrow” and “game as a bulldog,” Hyder Ali was an “unlucky good horse” ruined by “provincial trainers and inferior jockeys.” By age three, he was broken-down and exiled to Toronto, Canada, until purchased by General Richard Rowett for the Meadows Farm Stud.
Interpose was no blue hen. So, true to the standard, I learned little about her outside of standing 16 hands and gray colored. What of her bloodlines? She descended from notable sires such as Glencoe, Boston, Touchstone, and Lexington. I can only speculate about the female line. Presumably, it was strong, too.
The fourth mating of Interpose to Hyder Ali produced a chestnut-colored colt foaled in Doncaster Red Barn. The colt will be the subject of my posts in March and leading up to the stage curtain lifting on April 1: the official release date of my book!
